◈ Episode 470. For.

[Main Quest: The Truth Beyond the Shadow]

Is it the illusion of godhood or the harsh truth that is desired?

The light will shine in the eyes of those who have given up being gods.

-Lead the Shadow God to the Pantheon. (in progress)

Also.

‘It never made sense in the first place.’

Given the quest objective.

Somehow the Pantheon doesn’t seem to be a place I can enter.

You just said it in a plausible way, right?

‘I’m a non-believer?’

Saying that you don’t believe in Gods, grandiosely.

I don’t believe in God in the first place.

I wonder if I can set foot in the Pantheon where the gods reside.

‘Even if I could, they’d kick me out for blasphemy.’

I looked at the kneeling Shadow God.

“Ahhh…….”

The god of the virtual reality game, Arcana Continent Biography. The weight of that name is unknown to me. However, his complexion was much different than before. It was as if his face had been revitalized.

Woooooo.

I hear the whale’s cry.

Then, it vomits up everything it has swallowed.

The ‘Bad Omen that swallowed a God’ begins to oxidize.

It’s as noisy as it is massive, scattering into dust.

My hands reflexively straighten my disheveled clothes.

I said dryly.

“Even the way you leave is undignified.”

His gaze shifts to the mouth of the Pantheon.

‘Still, it’s getting more and more plausible.’

The Bad Omen spat out the scenery of the entrance to the Pantheon that it had devoured. Indeed, the landscape was unreal enough to be the dwelling place of the Gods.

……No.

‘My eyes are rolling beyond what is plausible……?’

Maybe God does exist, I think.

It’s not normal enough to shake my religious views!

Thanks to the effect of the Pentagram of Pure Knowledge.

The knowledge of all the minerals and plants in my head was telling me. The rarity of minerals and plants in a space that is not the treasure trove of the Pantheon, but just the entrance to it, is insane!

Among other things.

‘It wasn’t just something you said, it was something that really happened?’

Boundless vitality.

Overflowing strength.

Fluctuating magic power…….

The effects were mind-blowing.

The elixirs that were literally legends were right in front of my eyes. Moreover, wasn’t I the owner of Hidden Peace, the Flower Garden of Elegance, and the one who had experience in cultivating elixirs through the cultivation of elixir herbs?

‘I can’t pass by.’

I felt like a cat passing by a fish shop, but this was only the sentiment of Lee Hoyeol, who hadn’t been able to quench his thirst for water.

“Finally, you have the basics.”

Still not impressed, Grandfell.

After a brief comment, I turn to look at the Shadow God.

What a snout, by the way.

There’s no way I’m going to let Grandfell’s way of speaking slide.

“Still, it doesn’t compare to my flower garden.”

……Nah, do you feel like being smug in this situation?

Of course, you’re not wrong.

It’s Yusra’s Golden Palace, after all, and if the Pantheon has a guardian spirit beast, Pegasus, then the Garden of Elegance has a guardian elf, Elsidor.

‘Anyway, I don’t want to lose even one word.’

The good news was that the Shadow God didn’t seem to have time for my snout ramblings, why, he was too busy taking in the sight of the return of the Pantheon.

‘I’ll give him a little time to marvel.’

What he was about to hear would be quite shocking.

Let me see, how can I make it easier for him to understand?

It’s probably not as easy as explaining it to the average Arcanian.

‘Actually, I’m not sure I can make him understand with this way of speaking.’

It’s better to see it once than to hear it a hundred times.

Should I just open a portal and show Reality?

Once he understands Reality.

It would be easier for him to understand the relationship between Bad Omen and Raymon Sean.

It was a moment I struggled with.

“I’m ready to accept the whole truth.”

He’s already awake.

The Shadow God straightened his knees and rose to his feet.

Then there’s no reason to hold back.

I had warned him early.

“From now on, the world you know will collapse.”

“I was prepared.”

A bitter smile tugged at the corners of the Shadow God’s mouth.

“No, perhaps they just didn’t want to admit it. We were only gods in the well anyway. Never even able to see the world outside the well…….”

Never saw the world outside the well.

‘As expected, there is a story.’

Perhaps I should find out more about the Pantheon. Of course, for now, the Shadow God was in charge of reality and the Arcana Continent. And I’m also busy trying to get him to understand Raymon Sean, the cause of all this.

‘Where to begin.’

Arcana Continent Biography.

The Cataclysm.

Raymon Sean’s update.

What order should I tell the story in to make it easier for the Shadow God to accept the situation? I think back to Lee Hoyeol’s shallow social experience. In the original story, the first step is to build empathy…….

‘So that we can know what each other knows and doesn’t know.’

My lips moved as I thought.

“Lord of the Shadows, do you know.”

……Wait, no matter how important empathy is.

“Great Claudi.”

Me and the Shadow God.

Even if there’s a consensus that we’re similarly manipulated by the setting.

I don’t need to make you understand that dark history!!!

*

A contract with the Shadow God that made it impossible to die.

Thanks to him, my broken spine and bones are healing.

I couldn’t even breathe.

Now I can speak, though it’s half air, half sound.

“……I’m surprised.”

Gabriel opened his eyes with difficulty and looked at Hoyeol. No matter how many times he replayed the scene, he couldn’t understand what had happened.

Was that truly the Demon Hunter I had known? There was no reason for someone with such spectacular swordsmanship and extraordinary magical power to set foot in Akshan…….

However.

“I don’t know how many years have passed…….”

It seemed that there was no need to worry about Akshan anymore.

It had to be that way, hadn’t it?

Gabriel felt the landscape and the air change.

“You saved me.”

He had saved the Shadow God, not from demonic possession, but from his own malice. He had not turned away like Akshan, nor hunted like himself.

Yes, that was the true meaning of the exorcism ritual.

A shy laugh escaped him.

“See? I was wrong, and you were wrong.”

Gabriel shifted his gaze to Hiel, who stood at his side.

Then he asked.

It was a question, a pure question.

“Why are you following his orders?”

He must have been watching my atrocities.

“I am a terrible person who has a history of pushing your master and making him fall. But is that all? Before I claimed my connection to Akshan, I was a demon hunter who was excommunicated from Akshan.”

Hiel spoke in a steady voice.

“Is that what you really think?”

Unwavering trust in that noble gaze.

What are you talking about?

Gabriel asked back without realizing it.

“What are you talking about?”

“You said that you pushed him down, and I’m asking if you truly believe that your actions could have caused him to fall.”

“……!”

Gabriel suddenly realized.

“Well, I guess I overestimated myself.”

I had witnessed a new level of strength in the form of Hoyeol, who had lightly hunted the Bad Omen that Swallowed the Gods of the prototype of the entrance to the Pantheon.

As I said before, it was too overwhelming for a Demon Hunter.

Even so, he fell from the sky.

‘……If he wanted to stop the fall, he could have.’

There was no need to bring up the Magic Tower.

If they were mages of some renown.

They could have manifested levitation.

“You’re missing the point.”

Hiel added to Gabriel’s thoughtfulness.

“Perhaps the Lord just wanted to trust you.”

“……!”

Hoyeol’s alter ego.

Hiel knew instinctively.

Hiel instinctively knew who her Lord was.

Gabriel answered.

“He wanted to trust me. That makes me feel even more guilty, doesn’t it? I don’t know if I’ve repaid that trust, especially since I don’t know if I’ve done anything to deserve it…….”

Multi-layer barrier, 『The Mirror That Reflects No Shadows』.

Gabriel looked at Hoyeol.

What did he see beyond the mirror?

Then Gabriel spoke in a low voice.

“As expected, your Lords are complicated.”

Hiel didn’t miss the word.

“What do you mean, ‘lord’?”

Gabriel was still staring at Hoyeol.

But Gabriel’s attention didn’t last long.

For he had experienced it himself.

『The Mirror That Reflects No Shadows』.

It allowed Gabriel to guess.

That Hoyeol hadn’t gone through the proper process.

That he’d seen through the middle layer barrier.

His clothes were too neat, which was unthinkable considering what he and the other guests had been through in the middle layer of society.

Moreover.

It was also unthinkable for Hoyeol.

There was only one answer, then.

‘The ‘you’ in the mirror has shown mercy, yes.’

Gabriel replied to Hiel.

“It is nothing. Perhaps it is my time to die, and I have spoken in vain.”

Then Gabriel muttered softly.

“I see. I was not wrong after all, Akshan.”

Indeed, it was an unbelievable sight.

Gabriel gazed at the trees that rose up from the entrance to the Pantheon.

Leaves were already fluttering in the breeze.

Yes, maybe…….

“If I didn’t die to see this day…….”

At least I can close my eyes and let go of my bitterness.

That was when Gabriel was thinking.

Gabriel heard footsteps.

ttogag.

Gabriel spoke sincerely.

“You have a knack for scaring the crap out of people.”

It was a joke, but the answer could not have been more serious.

“I am well aware of that.”

“……?”

Neither his appearance nor his abilities looked like he was an Akshan demon hunter.

It was obvious by the way they didn’t speak to each other.

Gabriel smirked.

“So he is an Akshan, too.”

Then, his fallen body began to disperse into thin air.

And Gabriel could feel it.

The contract with the Shadow God was finally broken.

Hoyeol murmured.

“As of this time, all contracts with the Shadow God have been broken. All shadows, including yours truly, guests and employees of the Shadow Corridor, will return to their owners.”

“I see.”

“Make your will, Gabriel.”

At those words, Gabriel found himself looking at Hiel.

Oh, really, he’s going to honor the will of a lowly fool like me?

Really.

‘You are extremely merciful lords.’

Gabriel opened his mouth.

“As a former excommunicated demon hunter of Akshan, I must first ask your pardon. I only wished for a chance for self-reflection. But…….”

You should know each other better than anyone.

And yet.

You were not ready to face each other.

“I realized that this was presumptuous.”

Gabriel swallowed the words that were coming.

“In truth, there are many things I would like to ask you, for as I said, my body is already in the ground, a skeleton. I wonder if Akshan is still there if the great evil and demons have taken hold, and many other things, but I will neither ask nor listen.”

Gabriel locked eyes with Hoyeol.

“You are well aware that I am a dirty demon hunter, excommunicated even from Akshan. So, as I am, I will leave you a bad will as well.”

To be precise, he spoke to ‘them’.

“If you find yourself facing a trial too great to bear, you will find my body buried somewhere in the eastern part of the Arcana continent. And retrieve my artifact from within. If it is…….”

It will help you in some way.

Gabriel’s shadow left a short will and testament.

Slowly, it dispersed and began to fade away.

To Gabriel, Hoyeol said.

“There is no trial too great for me to bear.”

Until the very last moment.

It’s about the snout capacity that would have made someone sigh.

The voice continued in a more serious tone.

“Nevertheless, for you who were for Akshan.”

“……?”

“I, Akshan, will see to your end.”

So uncharacteristic of a demon hunter.

Gabriel’s face lit up.

Then, it dispersed into thin air.

“Thank you for that.”

.

.

.

Yeah, that’s all well and good.

[You have successfully completed the class quest, ‘Nevertheless, for Akshan’.]

[You begin the class quest, ‘Gabriel’s Tomb’.]

[The legend, ‘The One Who Blasphemes Even the Gods’, echoes across the Arcana Continent.]

What’s with the echoing legend again, hey?!