Chapter 714 – Top Secret (1)

The source of all evil, they say.

‘Even if that’s an exaggeration…’

I’m the one who makes even that come true.
Everything was still going exactly as arranged.
Even the karma—the retribution from a previous cycle—that had been crushing you.

It was all something I could shoulder myself.

Grandfell felt the change creeping into his senses.
An immeasurable guilt flowed down his spine.
He could feel himself—someone who had never wavered across eternal ages—beginning to shake.

And yet, he accepted it calmly.

No—rather…

“So this was the weight you were carrying.”

He smiled.

Just taking on the burden that had been crushing you
was reason enough to feel joy.

Grandfell turned back on his own path.

‘The Arcana Continent, and the real world.’

In both worlds, he was called the final enemy.
Now that the authority of Agares had been added to him,
there was no chance that hatred would be overturned in this cycle.

Then what remained was only the price of sins from the previous cycle.
Yes—Grandfell had used the curse
to show the beings of the previous cycle something.

It wasn’t Hoyeol who had committed the wrong.

No—
even if Hoyeol had committed those wrongs…

What he showed them was that those sins came entirely from himself.

Grandfell let out a small laugh.

“Because that is the truth.”

The reason you committed such unforgivable sins.

Even if you had forgotten,
I had never forgotten that it was because of me.

Fortunately, only in this cycle did things finally return to their proper places.

He felt his body slowly sinking.

The retributions that had spilled out of the collapsed curse had begun to press down on him instead.

Suddenly, a certain memory surfaced.

“Something you once said comes to mind.”

A faint smile formed.

―“Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo is noble. No matter who stands before him, he never bows his head. His pride is unimaginably heavy and never wavers. Even if that very weight drags him under and he drowns.”

If this is the weight that will drown me.…

“Then it is a magnificent pride.”

I shall bear it willingly.

*

*

Lorenzik’s flustered voice rang out.

“H–Huh?”

Gradually, my vision returned.

“Are you alright?”

Axenheitz and Lorenzik.

The two of them looked at me with worried eyes.

But I couldn’t answer them.
I couldn’t even meet their gaze.

Because I could feel it.

‘…It’s disappearing.’

In player terms, it felt like a [Status Effect] had been removed.

Vitality began to flow back into my body.

The nausea that had never left me,
the hallucinations,
the voices—

I could no longer see or hear any of them.

More importantly, I could see the proof.

Lorenzik let out a breath of relief.

“Phew… I don’t know why, but that’s a relief.”

From the collapsed curse—

‘I can’t see the retribution from the previous cycle anymore.’

I murmured reflexively.

Karma…

The system wasn’t whole after Raymon Sean’s destruction,
but even just knowing the number of digits was enough to grasp the situation.

I checked the flickering, damaged message.

[■■ ■■■ : ■,■■■,■■■,■■■]……

“!”

[■■ ■■■ : ■■■,■■■,■■■]

The number of digits in my stored karma had decreased.

It was proof that the value was dropping in real time.

Was it a bug?
Did Raymon Sean plant a virus in the system?

If I hadn’t heard that voice earlier,
I might’ve thought it was just an error.

But I heard it clearly.

― “The one who committed such acts could never be this weak.”

Before the retribution that spilled from the collapsed curse,
I trembled in fear.

And because of that, the retribution misunderstood.

The one who committed the unforgivable sin in the previous cycle wasn’t me—
it wasn’t Hoyeol.

― “Ah… then it was all that bastard’s doing.”

‘Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo.’

Like I said—I’d realized your intention.

The scene that suddenly surfaced in Seoul,
and you wearing Agares’s authority—
that was nothing more than a preview.

You were planning to shoulder all the retribution from the previous cycle by yourself, weren’t you, Grandfell?

‘I get why you’re doing this now.’

You believe it.

‘That I will hunt you down.’

That’s why you’re trying to fall into hell carrying everything alone.

Even the price for the sins I committed in the previous cycle.

You’re planning to throw yourself into hell.

Honestly…

It was hard to put these feelings into words.

Yeah.
Because what I felt was a sense of alienation.

In this twisted situation,
the actions you take for yourself become the actions that hurt you most,
and the actions that don’t seem like they’re for you
end up being the ones that protect you the most.

It was unbearably confusing.

‘So that’s why…’

As if you knew I’d be confused.

As if you wanted it to become a habit, etched into my body.

Maybe that’s why you always spoke and acted the way you did.

I whispered softly.

“…A promise is something that must always be kept.”

*

*  tl/n: Axenheights => Axenheitz

*

*

Time did not wait. It flowed on.

AAU – Republic of Korea Branch.

Sung Hyunjoon spoke with an excited face.

“Wow… I never thought I’d live to see a day like this. Right, senior?”

All AAU branches gathering in the Korean branch.

“We’ve had branch head meetings before, but this is the first time something like this has happened, isn’t it? Well, I guess it’s not that strange. The core branch of the AAU moved here— to Seoul!”

The core branch.

Even though AAU claimed to be an organization independent from politics, until now it had no choice but to move according to the logic of hegemony.
Which meant that the one and only “core region” had always been the United States branch.

Yoon Soogyeom shrugged.

“A lot of that was because Director Joshua stepped back.”

In reality, the White House had expressed deep regret that the Korean branch was selected as AAU’s core branch.
Of course, they couldn’t take any real action.

Sung Hyunjoon tapped his temple with his finger.

“Even the White House has to have some sense. They can’t argue against it, right? Agares showed up, and Seoul overcame even that crisis. How could they lowball Seoul’s value after that?”

The value of Seoul, the land of anomalies.

Just the fact that it was the only place connected to the Arcana Continent made it immeasurable.
And hadn’t they even overcome the unknown threat that everyone feared?

But Yoon Soogyeom poured cold water on the mood.

“It’s not time to celebrate yet.”
“What? You’re still on guard, senior? I mean, we even took down Agares, the second Demon King of the Thrones. No matter how big of a deal the last one is, how strong could he really be?”
“…Are you sure about that?”

Vassago.

Speculation about the third Throne Demon King was rampant.
Especially with information steadily coming in from China.

Sung Hyunjoon held up his smartphone.

“What do you mean, ‘are you sure’? Look— even Chinese players already pinpointed the location of the Demon King’s Castle. Once the Holy War Alliance starts moving, this’ll be over in no time.”

The Demon King’s Castle was certainly formidable.

And Hyunjoon wasn’t wrong. If the hardline Holy War forces who moved to the Demon Realm joined with the moderates in reality, they wouldn’t even need to borrow the General Manager’s power…

“They could bring down a castle like that.”
“Yeah, even if siege warfare favors the defenders…”
“But Vassago is different.”

Why was Yoon Soogyeom wary of Vassago?

It was simple.

Vassago was—

“The longest-surviving of the Ten Thrones, excluding Bael.”
“Come on, that’s just a one-line setting, isn’t it? And even if that setting became reality, compared to the other Ten Thrones, he’s nothing special. Honestly, Paimon is way more—”
“That’s exactly why it creeps me out.”

How had a “one-line setting” become real?

What made Vassago survive as the final Ten Throne?

The question felt deeply unsettling.

Sung Hyunjoon clicked his tongue.

“Anyway, that’s why everyone’s gathering in Seoul.”

Shared databases across branches.

After Agares manifested in Seoul, AAU changed.
They no longer hesitated to reveal information they previously hoarded.

Sung Hyunjoon clenched his fist, eyes burning.

“Doesn’t your heart race a bit? The ‘final enemy’ is right in front of us. The world unites as one, forgetting old grudges for a moment, and everyone cooperates for peace. Come on— that’s already a hero’s epic right there.”

The final enemy.

He wasn’t talking about just Vassago.

Yoon Soogyeom rolled the words over in his mind.

‘So in the end… the source of all evil?’

Yoon Soogyeom didn’t have the mental strength to resist Agares’s authority.
Meaning, if he saw those silver evil eyes, he’d be consumed by hostility.

And yet—

‘Is that really the final enemy?’

Thanks to his logic-first way of thinking, questions never stopped flooding his mind.

But that was all.

Yoon Soogyeom nodded.

“Yeah. I hope something shows up in the database.”

After that day, time began to flow even faster.

.

.

.

“Unbelievable… this day actually came, senior!”
“I told you to stop overreacting.”
“You say that, but the corner of your mouth is twitching.”

The Holy War Alliance built a forward base in the Demon Realm.

They also found a way to warp directly to the Demon Realm without relying on Behemoth’s maw.

Senior mages of the Magic Tower.

It was thanks to their growth— non-players achieving such remarkable progress— that everyone became curious.

How had they grown so drastically?

The senior mages answered surprisingly openly.

— Senior Mage: “All of the Magic Tower’s advances are thanks to Player Lee Hoyeol!”

“Senior! There was a special lecture! The General Manager’s special lecture!”
“Did he teach them some secret technique?”
“Look at this. Conquering the Demon Realm isn’t even a dream anymore!”

The forward base for conquering the Demon Realm.

Now that it was connected directly to the Magic Tower’s portal—

The Holy War Alliance could freely deal with enemies in both reality and the Demon Realm.

“Look at Vassago— he’s just holed up in that Demon King’s Castle, completely stuck. No matter how high its durability is, how long do you think it can really last?”

At Hyunjoon’s words, Yoon Soogyeom clicked his tongue playfully.

“Hyunjoon. Do we really have time to worry about that?”
“What? Director Park was nagging me a second ago, and now you too? Analyzing the database is good and all, but we need room to breathe.”
“Forget that. You know this is exactly when you can’t let your guard down.”
“…You don’t understand my heart, senior.”

Tap tap tap.

Sung Hyunjoon pounded the keyboard harder than usual.

Maybe that was why.

His brow twitched as he was combing through the database.

…The Great Sage’s prophecy?

The Great Sage: Rise.

A named NPC who had recently caused a stir among players by handing out a “Myth Quest.”
Such quests were rare, so questions flooded in.

Not that we could answer them. We didn’t know either.

Even the database had no entries about the Myth Quest.

But then—

──────
The prophecies of the Great Sage Rise always come true.
──────

That single short line couldn’t be ignored.

Hyunjoon combed through the countless prophecies the Great Sage had made over his long life.

“Hmm…”

The Great Sage’s reputation wasn’t light.

He’d accurately predicted the rise and fall of the Arcana Continent…
the birth of empires…
even countless major and minor crises.

He hadn’t described the Cataclysm in full detail, but—

──────
Malice will cover the Arcana Continent.
──────

Knowing what he knew now, it made enough sense to nod along.

That was why.

For once, Hyunjoon couldn’t respond to Yoon Soogyeom when he spoke first.

“Hyunjoon, are you mad?”
“…”
“Wow, you really are mad.”

Footsteps drawing closer.

Click—

Reflexively, Hyunjoon turned off the monitor.

He stood up, hiding his expression.

“No, I’m just tired. If you’re sorry, buy me a coffee.”
“Huh? Out of nowhere?”
“Yeah!”

As he pushed Yoon Soogyeom toward the door, Hyunjoon’s face turned deathly pale.

In terms of time.
And in terms of logic.

‘This doesn’t make sense… how…?’

In prophecies made before the Arcana Continent Chronicles service even existed—

‘The General Manager… no, Mr. Hoyeol… appears?’

And on top of that—

He was said to be the one who would bring about the end of the world…!