Episode 246
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The shadow giant rose up to face the dragon that seemed as if it would tear the heavens and earth apart.
It was a clash like something out of a myth, and any other war meant nothing in the face of their clash.
The golden dragon roared, and at the same time its tail slammed down.
The Shadow Lord, with pitch-black tentacles endlessly wrapping around him, stretched out his arms. At the same time, the darkness surrounding his body began to swirl like a storm.
A ridiculous amount of power, unmatched by anything Dale has ever displayed.
As the Shadow Lord, he was a power that could literally bring down the world.
At the same time, the world we were standing on was enveloped in endless light.
It was the dawn that drove away the darkness of the night. Spreading the endless light of dawn, the world that the Golden Lord had unfolded endlessly swallowed up the entire area.
“What do you know about gold and are talking about?”
The golden dragon roared.
“Look at this splendidly shining dawn.”
“It’s dawn.”
Dale answered blandly.
“Was it so difficult to accept that the sun rises, darkness falls, and the sun rises again?”
“Don’t we all know the truth that this world will eventually end in darkness?”
“I don’t know.”
Dale spat it out coldly, as if it were someone else’s business.
“Just as you desperately tried to protect this world, I too tried to protect my world. I guess they did the same.”
It wasn’t just one world from a previous life. The innocent people who had to be sacrificed to the empire’s ambitions and the experiments to reach the world of truth. They too had their own worlds.
What fills this continent is the bloody history they have accumulated while devouring their world.
“Do you remember how many worlds were sacrificed for this one world, while trembling with fear over the destruction of the world that had no hope of ending?”
“How many worlds must be sacrificed to save one?”
The golden dragon laughed in disbelief at those words.
“It’s everything.”
Without a moment’s hesitation.
“To bring endless gold to this world, I would gladly sacrifice all the worlds in this universe.”
Hearing that, Dale burst out laughing again.
“We haven’t even started yet. After unifying the continent, the experiments to reach the world of truth and obtain answers will not end. No, not just the world of truth. My empire will stop the ice and darkness that will come to the end of this world by any means necessary.”
“That’s too bad.”
Hearing that, Dale scoffed coldly.
“Your lies are neither beautiful nor true. They are ugly from the beginning, and are filled with endless selfish greed.”
The Shadow Lord moved his body, mocking the Lord of Lies and Gold.
Swirling shadows rushed toward the gold, and scattered light sank into the darkness.
The truth that no one can escape has finally been thrust upon with malice.
I remember the bubble of destruction that the Immortal Frederick once showed. At least not everything he said was wrong.
Nothing in this world can escape the ‘end’.
The shadow lord’s darkness swept towards the dragon’s brilliantly shining golden scales, and the scales began to erode, glowing dark and black like black gold. The golden dragon roared again.
At the same time, the dragon’s forelegs swung and its mouth surged forward.
The tentacles that had wrapped around Dale and formed a shadowy colossus were torn to pieces, and each time, more tentacles rose up again, claiming to be part of his flesh.
The golden dragon continued to slaughter, slaughtering after slaughter, and each time, tentacles rose up to counter the dragon’s strikes.
And as Dale continued to spread his darkness, tarnishing the gold, the black, corroding scales would fall away and new, golden scales would emerge in their place.
Gold and shadow collided.
Gold, distorted by greed and lies, began to emit a light more beautiful than anything else in the world.
The darkness distorted by the cruel truth that no one dares face began to turn blacker and darker than anything else in the world.
The gold was swallowed by the shadow, and each time the golden light drove away the darkness of the shadow.
Light and darkness clashed and clashed, and golden dragons and shadow giants entangled endlessly.
Beings that seemed like they would emerge from the end of a myth finally clashed.
“Look at this beautiful light, child of shadow! Look at the splendor of this light! I cannot allow this splendor to be taken away by truth and shadow! I cannot hand over the gold to anyone!”
The golden dragon roared, and Dale sneered at his words.
This was it.
There is no grand cause to prevent the end of the world. Things like lies and truth were never important from the beginning.
It was greed.
No one can hand over gold, not even the shadows and ice at the end of the world.
“So you came up with some fancy nonsense about protecting your empire and the world?”
That’s why the Shadow Lord opened his mouth. He couldn’t even laugh.
Because only then can we understand the meaning of this tiresome confrontation.
This was, from the beginning, a childish fight for a bowl of rice that exists in any world. A childish obsession that one can never give the gold they have to someone else.
The true name of gold was greed.
The obsession that he cannot give up what he has. Even though he has obtained immortality and an empire, the golden monarch’s desire still does not go away.
That’s why shadows were born. To take what was meant to be taken.
“I will tell you the real truth.”
The Shadow Lord opened his mouth coldly.
“I am here to take everything you have.”
“How dare you… … !”
The golden dragon roared and lunged at the Shadow Lord again, while the Shadow Lord silently spread his arms.
As if accepting his presence.
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The shadow giant stretched out both arms and wrapped around the golden dragon. The golden breath and maw of the dragon endlessly tore at the Shadow Lord’s flesh. Nevertheless, the Shadow Lord paid no attention.
The dragon’s roar echoed.
At the same time, even before that roar, the Shadow Lord did not yield.
The darkness that made up his existence simply swallowed up the gold endlessly.
The shadow giant’s body collapsed as it was.
Darkness melted and engulfed the land like a flood, and a golden dragon screamed in the flood of shadows.
“As the Lord of Shadows, it is my duty to take away everything you have.”
The shadow didn’t care. It just calmly proclaimed that it would become an end that would swallow up the entire world of dawn that the Golden Monarch had spread out.
The brilliant light and dawn faded away, and darkness fell.
It was a fleeting light, like a candle in the wind, and soon the final light faded away.
* * *
When Dale raised his head, it was a white, dark winter night.
Dale lowered his head in the endless silence.
A man wearing golden armor was lying there.
“With this… … .”
After finishing the battle, Dale slowly turned his head.
What filled the winter nights were countless corpses, a sea of blood, and the living.
There was no point in fighting any more.
The two monarchs clashed, and the fight finally ended.
It’s all over. The golden monarch who symbolizes the empire has fallen here, and what’s left will eventually be nothing more than their standard-bearers. Dealing with the remnants won’t be easy. But that’s all there is to it.
It’s all over. So fleetingly? Really?
Thinking so, Dale turned his head.
Still nothing changed.
In that place where a freezing silence had descended, Dale walked calmly.
* * *
There is an ancient structure in Demon King’s Land that no one knows who built.
And some say that the Great Labyrinth is the work of the ancient demons, but the ancient demons never built that structure. The Immortal Frederick and the Saxon clan were quietly waiting for their time in the shadowy tower beyond.
Nevertheless, Dale remembered the familiar feeling he felt deep within the Great Labyrinth.
The warrior from the other world was no exception.
At that very moment, the battle between gold and shadow took place.
The warrior from the other world also set foot on the frozen soil of Saxony.
To the deepest part of the labyrinth city where the Saxon Viscount’s Castle is, where Dale’s mother Elena and younger sister Lize fled before the great battle.
Deep inside the Great Labyrinth.
From the deepest part of the place, the warrior from another world stretched out his arms.
“It was an ancient relic. Was that so? … … So that’s why it was like that.”
After muttering as if it was someone else’s business, he started to laugh quietly.
In the deepest part of the Great Labyrinth, what was there were literally ancient ruins.
The familiar titanium metal, broken glass, and non-functioning electronics. That was just a small part of it. Walking a little further, there was a row of tombstones big enough for a person to lie down on.
A cave of ridiculous size filled the basement. Therein lay the truth.
“What’s so funny?”
At the warrior’s side, the divine sword Bardell asked.
Leaving behind the evil deeds of the past, we now stand back to back as comrades who fight together to the bottom of the labyrinth.
“Have you seen the movie Planet of the Apes?”
“… … What is that?”
“No, that’s fine. Even if I tell you, you probably won’t understand.”
As he said that, the warrior from the other world smiled bitterly.
─ Start system startup.
An unfamiliar voice rang out, and at the same time, light returned to the dark room.
“The light… … ”
The divine sword Bard muttered, and the otherworldly warrior held his breath.
“Noah’s Ark System… … .”
“Noah’s Ark? Do you know about this labyrinth?”
“I know very well.”
The warrior from the other world answered, with a bitter smile that I couldn’t explain.
“I never thought it would end up like this if it were to fail.”
“… … Are you not interested in the war outside?”
“There wasn’t any.”
The warrior from the other world answered coldly.
“But now it has come into existence.”
At those words, the swordsman Bardel tilted his head, and the warrior from the other world spoke.
“… … Noah, can you recognize my voice?”
─ This is a command registered in the database.
The voice of the inorganic was heard again, and the warrior from another world smiled bitterly.
“What happened that day after I disappeared?”
He asked after laughing.
─ Would you like to view the log?
The warrior from the other world nodded silently.
At the same time, a blue hologram appeared in front of them. And then, in a voice that sounded like it was seeing someone it had missed very much, the hologram opened its mouth.
─ I’ve been waiting for you, Hanseong.
