novelPreparing for an expedition - 2
| ← Ch.287 | Ch.289 → |
- 1
'Ruler, we're ready. '
'Good. I Leave it to you and your authorities from now on. '
'Yes. Leave it to me. '
'The essence of this work is silence, as I always said. '
'Of course, the Lord of the Shadows... I won't let you down. '
'Go now. '
'Yeah. '
At the end of the order, Ruler closed down all his sensory paths that extend around the world.
Then came the silence.
In the past, he hated this silence. When he became the dominant position of all life in the Dark Earth, he did not imagine that this would be such a boring position.
He had fought too many enemies in fierce battles despite him losing some of it. The joy of being the Ruler of the Dark Earth, which he had for so long was no longer impressive.
Though he had the ability to forget and wanted to do so, it was a kind of downgrade, so it was simply his hope for now.
'I'm sick of this. '
He sank into his limitless large and broad mind.
These were things that have always been done for tens of thousands of years. He was free in this space of mind.
A blue figure approached him.
He picked up the box Ruler was holding and said, "Subject, do you have to go on a long journey from now on?"
'I didn't know it would be this long, Creator. '
In his words, Ruler was frightened by the emotions felt through his senses.
He was Ruler's creator. In a way, he was also the devil who made him refuse to die.
"Keep developing and evolving. The world will nod towards you when the infinite seeds germinate within you. Those idiots see you as a tool for our civilization to last, but I know that you are the only one in the world who's worth to live..."
'Even that value means nothing to me now. '
What did he want so much from this squalid humble body in this little box?
Out of his reach, Ruler has gone through so many. It was painful, but he endured because the Creator had one mission left to him. At that time, it was the best task on the ground. He was the only one who was intelligent enough to be a smart mammal.
He constantly absorbed and studied things to evolve.
Although there were countless individuals similar to himself and many others who built superior minds and bodies, he constantly struggled to withstand the tests at every given moment. As the days went by, his intellect was completed along with his strength.
He wanted to be complimented for this fact, but he had never seen his creator since then.
But, he didn't stop becoming strong.
It was the only task that his creator gave him.
Time had passed.
There was a world war. There was a tremendous war between heaven and earth several times. He was also sent to war against a biomass. His original purpose was to study the permanence of life, but at one point he was taking away the lives of other creatures. After suffering from a near-death damage and becoming a ragged piece, he was collected, cultivated, and was evolved into a new body, but his enemies were formidable too. He almost got absorbed dozens of times. No, he's actually been absorbed once, but he kept himself constantly safe. And again, he worked hard to take over the body. He survived and became strong again.
And then, something strange happened to him.
One day he was able to absorb a singular object that almost died in the battle at the top of a high mountain. He was able to absorb a great energy from that object. It was a piece of evidence that led to the transcendental hidden behind the world.
Stories about transcendental beings that cannot be explained by magic...
For him, like the son of alchemy, the world behind it all was like a new world. It had made enormous progress that it cannot be compared to before. Then, he began to bring his opponent to his knees one by one. Similar biomasses have been developed on the enemy side, but they have not surpassed the original. After many fights, those who used him as a weapon eventually won.
But he was not left alone.
"It's a command. You have to sleep. Your presence doesn't fit into this world."
"You're kidding me. I told you to stop taking the medicine when you sleep, didn't I?"
"Damn it! Just go to sleep! There's a lot of people out there trying to destroy you!"
"What?!!!!"
"I'll hide your core somehow, so shut up and... Argh!"
"Huh! Come on! You... Oh, my God. Damn it! I'll kill you all!"
He was the first to defy human commands. So, they fought for hundreds of years again, but his opponent was tough. They were well aware of his weakness and were able to attack him efficiently. But with repeated victories and defeats, he continued to evolve his brain.
But they were also formidable.
As the tide of the war began to turn, they committed something great.
He didn't know the details...
One day, they all disappeared...
His powers that were sent all over the continent have revealed that all human beings and creatures except them have disappeared. The city where they lived existed, but all the creatures in it were wiped out.
It was after a long time when he found out what happened...
The fact that those who reached the extreme of alchemy gathered and separated the dimensions...
They couldn't beat him, so they just placed him in a prison called a dimension. Well, in another sense, they ran away...
He should be in a good mood, but it wasn't so good. More than 100 years after they disappeared, he realized that his evolution had stopped. The constant evolution of development being... the destiny for him, he had so much to regret.
He even tried to make something similar to a human being.
But its result was a failure. It was not his domain to evolve other creatures than himself.
He did make something similar, and they were all stuffed into the dungeons that the ancient people left behind. He succeeded in completing his own body like a human being, but that was it. Though he constantly advanced, it was only his own development and was a departure from his basic intention of plundering other objects. So, when some of the decoupled dimensions were opened tens of thousands of years later, he jumped with joy.
He waited without breaking the dungeon they had made because of fear that it might block the dimension forever. If it wasn't, he would have destroyed it...
When humans infiltrated his territory, calling it Dark Earth, he treated them with great hospitality. To make it easier for them to raid, he even made weak things that would be too crappy to call a family species. But even though they were so weak, the humans suffered some near-death damage. Is that all? Basically, the Dark Earth was a very difficult environment for them. The Dark Earth that had generated independent ecosystems tens of thousands of years ago, was too harsh for them to survive with.
That was not the only problem.
Knowing what solitude was, he had created countless beings that are of similar levels of intelligence. Originally, they were given free will to create an existence that would allow them to share experiences with each other but as the dimensions opened, it became increasingly difficult to control them. They were made within the limits of him, so they were useless to absorb.
Besides, the moment he dragged them to Earth or Elus... The place would be ruined. Ruler began to prepare for one ambitious plan. It took a long time because it was so big, but he finished it.
And now the end of his completion was coming.
"Ha-ha.. welcome to the ancient dungeon."
He recalled the absolute man from the earth.
That powerful being...
There must be a source on Earth that gave birth to such an existence.
He was at the heart of his plan.
The moment he cleared the dungeon and finishes the separation of dimensions...
His plan was to be completed.
- 2
Jaehwang stood in front of a big stone pagoda. The last time he came, he didn't have the time to see it properly. The stone pagodas were full of paintings that seemed to have been carved by the ancient people. These described the danger of this dungeon in various forms. And below it, he sees the dungeon's approximate structure and its most peculiarly shaped giant chamber.
Jaehwang, who was looking at them, asked Baeklin standing by his side."By the way, is it the last one where there is a dimensional stabilization system?"
"Isn't that obvious?" Baeklin said, pointing to one side of the stone pagoda. It was divided into 50 pictures and the largest room can be seen at the end. Baeklin said, pointing fingers at three letters drawn in the middle of the room.
"If you look at the ancient words I've studied, these two letters clearly mean 'dimension' and 'device'."
"What about the middle one?"
"Well, it means 'stabilization'."
Jaehwang frowned at his ambiguous answer. L, who stood quietly behind them at the time, stepped forward and said, "The meaning is different, but this place is right."
"You can read it?"
L answered Jaehwang's question, pouting her lips."Of course, I'm a dragon."
She said that, but Jaehwang would not believe it just because she was a dragon.
"Hmmm..."
Touching L's shoulder, Al said, "You can trust her. L once dominated the entire Elus and lived for the fun of tracking the traces of ancient people. You know why our dimension is called Elus."
Jaehwang nodded at Al's words. To him, he was trustworthy. Baeklin also looked at the dragons with his eyes wide open.
"Then do you see any other writings?"
"The reason this dungeon was born is that it was built to protect all living things from some evil."
"Really?
The devil was probably the Ruler. If she's right, then they've come to the right place.
"Shall we go in?" Jaehwang strode forward. A black space that must have had a door in its place, appeared before him.
"Huh? Just go in?" Baeklin said in confusion. As an experienced man, he could not easily move because of his fear.
"You're not coming in?"
"Shouldn't you call Goongi, too?"
Jaehwang shook his head in Baeklin's question. Goongi wasn't with him now. No, she didn't even come with the Dark Earth at all because she had a very important mission to handle. He couldn't tell anyone the truth.
This was Ruler's land.
Jaehwang raised his hand with a smirk.
Then, an arrow came into his hand.
Looking at the arrow which was reddish, Baeklin swallowed. He was not surprised by the arrow. He was surprised at Jaehwang who 'created' this arrow. Baeklin, who knew a little about the realm of God as a sorcerer, knew what "creation" was. He could often think of it as using strong energy to make the shape of an arrow, but his sense tells him that it was a the creation that ignored the laws of conservation of energy.
"Let's go."
Baeklin nodded at Jaehwang's words. Only then did he realize who he brought here. Jaehwang, who was called the strongest on earth, the greatest killer of disasters, and the god of living battles.
If even he fails, it means there was no one left on the planet to break through this place.
| ← Ch. 287 | Ch. 289 → |