Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint - Chapter 402

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 402: Episode 76: Book of Revelation (4)

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[All Constellations of the Star Stream have sensed the presence of a Calamity!]

[Many Constellations are terrified!]

Amid the rapidly changing climate, the Constellations who had been under a truce repeatedly shouted and issued constellation's declarations.

Some were bewildered by what was happening. Others felt the Calamity's Status and were overcome with fear. There were even Constellations contacting the Administration Bureau, desperate to escape this Scenario.

The battlefield was descending into chaos as the stars struggled to survive.

[The Administration Bureau of the Star Stream is responding to the emergency!]

At last, the Administration Bureau stepped in.

The Constellations' messages rapidly dwindled, suggesting that the Administration Bureau also considered the situation serious.

[The Administration Bureau of the Star Stream is holding a conference regarding this matter.]

Even the Administration Bureau probably hadn't expected the Great war of Angels and Demons to grow this large. The chaos score had originally been sprinkled in as seasoning to accelerate the Great war of Angels and Demons.

Yet that score had surpassed the good and evil score and was even trying to awaken the Apocalypse Dragon.

If the Apocalypse Dragon woke, countless Constellations would die.

In other words, the Administration Bureau's customer base would rapidly shrink.

[Even if the Administration Bureau steps in, it can't erase an awakening Calamity as though it never existed.]

I agreed with Surya.

This was a Main Scenario in the eighties. No matter how powerful the Administration Bureau was, it couldn't erase a Great Fable that had already emerged as though it had never happened.

This wasn't the time to trust the Administration Bureau's response.

"The Apocalypse Dragon needs ten more chaos points to awaken."

There was still a little time.

If we couldn't stop the Apocalypse Dragon's release, my companions would most likely be wiped out here.

How could I stop this?

One method immediately came to mind.

Eliminate whatever was raising the chaos score.

The problem was that the cause was inside that sphere.

Tsssttt...!

"Even the Seekers of the End won't be able to last long in there."

I knew the Seekers of the End's roster through TWSA. None of them could endure inside that sphere for long.

After all, Metatron, Agares, and the Constellations with the highest Status in this world were all inside.

By now, the Archangels and Demon Kings should have dealt with the Seekers of the End themselves. Then the chaos score would stop rising...

[Members of the same faction have clashed!]

[Current chaos score: 91]

That was when sparks struck down from the sky. Part of the trembling sphere opened slightly, and something began falling from the sky.

Six torn wings. An Archangel I knew.

I activated [Way of the Wind] and flew toward her.

The Archangel's body was light in my arms. A strong blue fragrance filled the air. Fables fell like petals from the deep wound splitting her back.

"Gabriel."

[The Constellation Lily Blooming in Aquarius is looking at you.]

Archangel Gabriel had returned with me after experiencing the 1,863rd round.

She was the Constellation who had suffered a great shock after learning that she would betray Eden in the future.

For a moment, I wondered if she might have triggered this incident, but that couldn't be true. Even in the original story, Gabriel had a good reason to betray Eden. Strictly speaking, it was hard to call it a betrayal at all.

Gabriel's lips moved with difficulty.

I couldn't properly hear her voice, so I urged her on.

"What happened in there? Please tell me."

Gabriel looked up at me with an exhausted expression, then handed me something.

It was Gabriel's fable.

Her lips trembled as she moved them.

I couldn't hear her voice, but I could clearly hear the words Gabriel's lips conveyed.

「Save Eden.」

Gabriel's fable began its story.

* * *

Metatron looked from the angels lined up at Metatron's side to the Demon Kings assembled across from them.

Everyone looked anxious. Their faces said they couldn't understand how things had reached this point.

Among them stood Metatron's longtime rival.

[To think we've come to this because of a single nebula. Ridiculous.]

The ruler of the 2nd Demon Realm, the Ruler of Hell's East.

Agares lit a thick cigarette and asked,

[How do you intend to decide the winner? Will you hold a separate third Great war of Angels and Demons? Honestly, I'm against it. Gathering this much Plausibility again would be close to impossible.]

To hold this Great war of Angels and Demons, both Eden and the Demon Realm had accepted enormous losses.

The Great war of Angels and Demons was one of the Star Stream's Great Fables, a spectacle unlike any before it. If this Scenario was nullified, the fables of good and evil they had barely gathered could scatter, sending both sides down the path to extinction.

Metatron looked at the sky, faintly visible beyond the gray sphere.

Thunder rumbled intermittently beyond the ominous dark clouds.

Perhaps because of the apocalyptic atmosphere, Metatron suddenly recalled something from long ago.

[Agares, it's already been thousands of years since the ruler of the First Demon Realm ascended.]

[There is no time for idle reminiscence.]

[Do you remember that day?]

[It was the day I inherited this damned Wall. How could I forget?]

[The Wall that Divides Good and Evil is growling.]

Ominous sparks rose from Agares's Incarnation body. A similar phenomenon occurred in Metatron's Incarnation body.

[The Wall that Divides Good and Evil is lost in memories.]

It was a Wall that was two, yet one.

A Final Wall Fragment that determined the good and evil of the world.

With that Wall between them, the Representatives of Eden and the Demon Realm faced each other.

[For a long time, you and I have determined this world's good and evil.]

What was good?

Even Metatron, Eden's leader, didn't know. Good was only the aggregate of countless fables.

Metatron had read and understood the fables of Metatron's predecessors and learned what good was. Rather than explain themselves, those forms of good pointed to other fables and said,

「That isn't good.」

That was how evil was made.

Justice was defined, and rage was invented.

「Therefore, we aren't evil.」

That was how good was made.

That simple dichotomy had torn the Star Stream in two.

The simpler and firmer a principle was, the greater its influence.

Countless Constellations had joined the current of good and evil.

[You wouldn't know how boring it is to exist as evil in this world.]

Agares exhaled cigarette smoke and continued.

[You are the one who made good and evil into this. You erased the details of evil and spread that damned good triumphing over evil like an epidemic. You are the true culprit who ruined the fables of good and evil.]

It didn't matter what details a Scenario contained, or what sorrow and pain it held.

Only the ending mattered.

Good punished evil. That alone made everyone weep and applaud.

There had certainly been a time like that.

Metatron said,

[Wasn't that a story you agreed with as well?]

[At the time, it was the only way to survive.]

Good survived by punishing evil, and evil prolonged its existence by resisting good.

Tens of thousands of years passed like that. Good and evil faded, and justice disappeared. Good and evil became ideas held by boring old people.

Now, no one cheered for good triumphing over evil.

Thud.

Agares's cigarette fell to the floor. He crushed the butt beneath his foot as though crushing an insect.

[Through the repetition of Scenarios, good has become dull tedium, and evil has become a stale cliché. I believe it's time to stop this.]

At Agares's words, the Demon Kings drew their weapons as one.

Metatron said,

[If we fight here, we will both perish.]

[Evil is always easier than good. Even if you disappear, we won't.]

[Just because the world has forgotten good doesn't mean I have forgotten it.]

[Then prove it.]

Agares's eyes burned.

[I will no longer play along with that pathetic good triumphing over evil. I am evil. I was evil from birth, and proving your existence was the reason for mine. As of today, I will free myself from that reason.]

The Demon Kings roared.

Their Status surged as if they would sweep away the Archangels at any moment.

Then, at that very moment...

[Members of the same faction have clashed!]

[Current chaos score: 83]

The system messages filled the air. The Archangels looked at one another in surprise as the chaos score suddenly rose.

[What is happening?]

[Outside! Someone is slaughtering members of the same faction outside!]

Agares and the Demon Kings were equally flustered.

At the center of that confusion, only Metatron smiled calmly.

[I have thought about it for a long time, but it seems this is the only way.]

[What...?]

[If you want to fight, I will fight you as much as you wish. But what meaning is there in ending the Great war of Angels and Demons by fighting among ourselves here? Who do you think will remember good and evil as they come to such a shabby end inside this small sphere?]

Metatron's voice was soaked in strange madness.

Sensing something was wrong, Agares shouted,

[Metatron! What the hell are you thinking?]

[This.]

As Metatron spoke, Michael, standing at the front of the Archangels, drew his sword.

When the strongest Archangel drew his sword, the Demon Kings also shouted and released their Status.

The next moment, Michael's sword pierced someone.

[Mi-Michael?]

The corners of the Archangel's eyes trembled in disbelief.

The one Michael had stabbed wasn't a Demon King. Michael smiled.

[What a pity. I wanted to kill Uriel first.]

Archangel Raguel repeatedly shook their head in disbelief, then died on the spot as fables poured from them.

Demonic energy boiled from Michael's entire body after he killed a fellow angel. The authority of a fallen angel became stronger by killing another Archangel.

[Members of the same faction have clashed!]

[Current chaos score: 87]

A Status nearing that of a Mythical Constellation erupted, and the slaughter began. The angels, left with nowhere to run, hurriedly released their Status, but they died without being able to put up a proper fight.

Michael had originally been bound by a restriction that prevented him from attacking angels of the same absolute good alignment. For this to be possible...

[Scribe, why...?]

Metatron's book radiated pure white light.

This massacre was taking place with the Scribe of heaven's tacit approval.

[Members of the same faction have clashed!]

[Current chaos score: 88]

A hellscape where angels killed angels.

The Demon Kings, who had watched as detached spectators, backed away in terror. Michael smiled brightly, wiped angel blood from his cheek, and said,

[Now, good will be remembered forever.]

[The oldest good begins its story.]

The Great war of Angels and Demons was ultimately a war of fables. And fables knew well how to make themselves remembered.

Agares roared in fury.

[Don't tell me you bastards are trying to awaken the Apocalypse Dragon...!]

As Agares hurriedly tried to release his Status, something burrowed into his back.

Stealthy, vicious demonic energy that threatened Agares's Status.

[The oldest evil begins its story.]

Agares staggered and turned around.

[...Why would you...?]

[You said it yourself.]

The sensation of a sharp claw carving out his heart.

Asmodeus, a Seeker of the End, was smiling.

[Evil is always easier than good.]

* * *

Gabriel's fable was very short. Yet it was enough to understand everything.

Hell had already unfolded inside that sphere.

「"Run, Gabriel. Ask them for help."」

At the last moment, Raphael and a few other Archangels sacrificed their Status to send Gabriel outside the sphere.

[The definitions of good and evil are undergoing upheaval!]

[Members of the same faction have clashed!]

[Current chaos score: 92]

"Kim Dokja."

Yu Junghyeok and Suyeong had come to my side before I knew it.

Their eyes demanded an explanation.

Rather than add a long-winded explanation, I went straight to the point.

"It's Metatron. That bastard intended to awaken the Apocalypse Dragon from the start."

Suyeong frowned as if she already knew what had happened.

"Didn't that bastard know about the 1,863rd round?"

In the 1,863rd round, Eden was destroyed by the Apocalypse Dragon.

Metatron knew that as well.

"Metatron must have believed this was the way to avoid destruction."

It was Junghyeok who said that.

"If the Apocalypse Dragon awakens, at least this Great war of Angels and Demons will become a fable the Star Stream won't forget until it is destroyed."

"No, what good is that when everyone fucking dies?"

"Not everyone will die. At least the survivors will remember good and evil forever."

If good and evil didn't disappear even when Eden and the Demon Realm were destroyed, the story would change. Even if everything was destroyed, that spirit would be passed on.

Countless Constellations and Incarnations would die, but the Apocalypse Dragon would be named evil.

Then the world would fight to oppose that Calamity.

Eden and the Demon Realm would be remembered forever.

Suyeong trembled at that vicious resolve.

"Those insane bastards..."

[Members of the same faction have clashed!]

[Current chaos score: 93]

As I watched the chaos score rise, despair gradually crept in.

This had all been Metatron's Scenario.

"Kim Dokja. What are you going to do now?"

In the distance, my other companions and Uriel were flying toward us.

I had to think, after everything it had taken to get this far.

Tsssttt!

Sparks struck down from the air, and a portal opened.

"Dokkaebi?"

[The Great Dokkaebi Huhju has manifested in the Scenario!]

[The Great Dokkaebi Huhche has manifested in the Scenario!]

The Great Dokkaebis, dressed in black and white suits respectively, descended to the ground while radiating imposing Status. Their wrinkled dress shirts and ties fluttered in the strong wind, as though they had come in a hurry.

They walked straight toward me and said,

[Demon King of Salvation, this Dark Stratum will soon disappear. And you will very likely die.]

I had expected the Administration Bureau to act soon. Still, I hadn't expected the Great Dokkaebis to come in person.

"If you came to warn me about the destruction, you're a little late. The system has already been going on about it for a while."

The Great Dokkaebis seemed surprised by my composed reply and looked at each other.

[Just as the rumors say, you've got quite a mouth on you.]

[That must be why the King is interested.]

As I was about to ask what that meant, a Great Dokkaebi smiled. It was the smile of someone about to make an offer I couldn't refuse.

[Demon King, I will be direct. Give up the Great war of Angels and Demons.]

The Great Dokkaebi smiled pleasantly and continued, looking at the fallen Gabriel.

[Then I will take you to the Final Scenario.]

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