Chapter 403
The Avatar of the Colossus shook its head.
Originally, the Archdemon and the Colossus were beings that could not coexist. Yet, having been trapped together in the same space for so long, they seemed to communicate without much hostility.
“I don’t fully believe it either. But right now, do we have any other options?”
“Why… no other options? Why not just feed on that bastard’s soul?”
The Archdemon’s Avatar grinned darkly.
“That soul is a sacrifice painstakingly prepared by all of Amcheon for a grand purpose. Feeding on it would restore some of our power. With that regained strength, we can repel the ‘Gatekeeper’ who guards the seal.”
It was a valid point.
Perhaps even a more certain method.
But there was a problem.
“…Who will take that soul?”
“Obviously, I’m the one for the job. I, ‘Destruction,’ am the strongest here.”
“Hah, what a joke. What exactly do you expect us to trust about you?”
Chris’s soul was singular.
Naturally, only one Great Entity could claim it.
They were forced to coexist, but none trusted the other.
No one would willingly hand over Chris’s soul.
“No, I, ‘Pain,’ am the right one.”
“Shut up, you disgusting Archdemons. If anyone’s going to reclaim that power, it belongs to us Colossi.”
As the atmosphere soured, Chris let out a short, amused laugh.
“Well, your reactions are exactly what I expected.”
That was good.
Everything was going according to plan.
“I think you’re all mistaken. When did I ever say I’d give you my soul?”
“!!”
“To be in this situation and still be so clueless, only greedy. Fine. I was a fool to try helping pathetic creatures like you. I’m leaving this Seventh Realm.”
“…Leaving?”
“Yes. My soul was always meant to ascend to the highest layer of Paradise. That’s where I’m headed.”
“…Do you really think the Celestial Realm will just let you go if you reach Paradise?”
“Is that your business? I was trying to help, and all you did was pant and eye my soul like vultures.”
Silence fell over the Great Entities.
“Do you think I won’t survive in Paradise? I’ll negotiate with the Constellations and carve out my place in the new world.”
Chris turned his gaze to Mephina.
“Mephina, the deal’s off. I’m leaving. I can already see the Celestial Constellations waiting for me with bated breath.”
It was no lie.
At the very top of the abyss of the Seventh Realm, the Colossi looked down on the realm’s landscape.
“This place is a prison space, so no one can enter freely from outside. But if I say the word, they’ll pull me out immediately.”
The Great Entities of the Seventh Realm looked flustered.
“W-wait a moment.”
“Why? Got something to say? Pathetic.”
“Don’t misunderstand. Only some of those disgusting Archdemons had foolish ideas. Most of us never intended to harm you.”
A lie that held no weight.
“Why would I trust any of you? The ones who tried to stab me in the back the moment we shook hands?”
“……”
“If you want my trust, then show me some sincerity.”
“…What do you want us to do?”
“Open the ‘Cradle.’”
The Great Entities stirred at the mention of the ‘Cradle.’
“Do you even know what the Cradle is?”
“Of course. It’s in the myths, isn’t it?”
The Cradle was the birthplace of the Great Entities, born from the void.
It was said to connect the highest heavens of the Celestial Realm with the deepest abyss of Gehenna.
“The deepest abyss of Gehenna is right here in the Seventh Realm. So this realm is connected to the Cradle.”
The problem was that the Cradle was one-way only.
You could exit from the Cradle to the Celestial Realm or Gehenna, but entering it from the outside was impossible.
“According to the laws of the Spatial Realm, it shouldn’t be impossible. If we pour in enough energy to tear a dimensional rift, we could open a passage into the Cradle.”
Theoretically, that was true.
No matter how strong a wall, if you pry open a crack, you can pass through.
“…How much power do you think it would take to open a rift into the Cradle? Realistically, it’s impossible.”
“No, it’s possible.”
Chris smirked.
“If we sacrifice the souls of about three Archdemons from your Third Realm as energy sources, it should be enough. Even if their powers are sealed, the rank of their souls remains.”
“!!”
“Looks like we have just the right sacrifices.”
Chris turned his gaze toward the Archdemons who had been most eager to feed on his soul, including ‘Destruction.’
“What the…!! How dare you!!”
The named Archdemons seethed with rage, but Chris just shrugged.
“Well, the choice is yours. Sacrifice those three and let the rest survive, or stay loyal and wait together in the gutter for destruction.”
It was no choice at all.
They hated each other deeply but were forced to coexist.
If those Archdemons had their full power, even combined, the others would suffer massive losses. But with their powers sealed, they could easily suppress them.
“Y-you’re going to fall for a mortal’s trick?”
“You bastards…!!”
The remaining Great Entities, having made their decision, launched a joint attack on the Archdemons Chris had singled out.
Since their powers were restricted, the clash didn’t shake the world.
Chris waited calmly for the situation to resolve.
After a considerable time passed—
“…We sacrificed them as you said.”
The Avatar of the Colossus approached, its face marked by clear signs of damage.
Indeed, the Third Realm’s Archdemons were formidable.
Even sealed, they had taken down quite a few Great Entities.
Of course, Chris didn’t care how much damage they’d suffered.
“Are you really going to enter the Cradle? As a mortal, your soul will be swallowed by the void and destroyed.”
“You’ll protect me.”
“…What?”
“That’s the second condition. You must grant me the ‘Atonement’s Protection’—a shield that bears the damage I take.”
“!!”
It meant a protection that absorbs damage on his behalf.
In other words, Chris was asking them to endure any harm he suffered inside the Cradle.
“That’s absurd…”
“If everyone here shares the damage simultaneously, it should be manageable, right?”
Not wrong.
They were Great Entities.
Though their powers were sealed, their rank as beings remained. They could bear that much.
“Or do you just not want to take any damage? How selfish. I never thought Great Entities could be so cowardly and timid.”
“……”
“If you don’t want to, fine. But don’t expect me to help you regain your original rank. I’m no fool to show kindness to those who offer no help.”
It was a threat.
If they didn’t grant the protection, he wouldn’t lift the seal.
In the end, the Great Entities agreed to bestow the Atonement’s Protection.
“You won’t last long. Get out of the Cradle before the protection fails.”
Chris nodded.
Once the protection broke, he’d have no way to survive.
He had to achieve his goal within that time.
“Then I will open the path to the Cradle.”
Goooooo—
As the souls of the three Archdemons were sacrificed, a shock like the world collapsing spread, and a rift opened.
The Cradle.
It was time to ascend to the Tenth Rank.
The Cradle.
A place well-known even to humans.
After all, it was where Great Entities were born.
It could be called the very source of the world.
“That’s why it connects both Gehenna and the Celestial Realm simultaneously.”
Chris looked around.
There was neither darkness nor light—nothing at all.
No color, no perception, not even the flow of time.
Pure void.
He had to ascend to the Tenth Rank here.
“It’s possible. This is where Great Entities are born.”
Chris recalled the ‘birth’ and ‘definition’ of a Great Entity.
“A Great Entity is the embodiment of causality itself. I have to obtain my own causality here in the Cradle.”
All the Great Entities of Amcheon had been born here.
In other words, the Cradle was where one could acquire causality.
“The problem is, I don’t have the luxury to leisurely obtain causality.”
He had to redefine himself, realize his will, and elevate that will into causality.
Even for Chris, it was uncertain how long it would take.
This was no peaceful training ground.
The void was already trying to swallow him. Without the protection from the Great Entities of the Seventh Realm, he would have vanished long ago.
“I have to use a shortcut.”
Chris turned his gaze.
There was a way to think about it.
A void where nothing existed.
But in truth, nothing was truly absent.
There was a strange distortion writhing in the bleak void.
Chris approached and reached out with his soul’s hand.
“Summon Andril.”
After reaching the Ninth Rank, he had become Andril’s perfect master, binding it to his soul.
Even after falling into Gehenna, he could summon it.
He thrust Andril into the distortion in the void.
Poke!
“Goooooo—”
A great roar echoed as the distortion pierced by Andril spread like a tangled thread, about to vanish into the void.
Chris reached out with his soul’s hand and grasped the remnants, nodding as if confirming his suspicion.
“This is the seed of a Great Entity.”
An astonishing revelation.
This tangled thread would one day grow into a Great Entity.
That meant—
Fwaaah!
Chris’s hand glowed.
It was the power of Devouring he had gained by absorbing Sherad.
He absorbed the remnants swirling in his palm and felt causality filling his soul.
Yes.
Chris planned to harvest the seeds of the Great Pattern and forcibly absorb their causal energy to ascend to the 10th star.
“Of course, the amount of causal energy gained this way is just a tiny speck.”
But that didn’t matter.
Chris expanded his perception.
A vast, boundless cradle.
Within the void, countless seeds stirred.
Their number reached into the tens of thousands.
Not all of them would become Great Patterns.
Out of those tens of thousands of seeds, only one or two would truly ascend to greatness.
What mattered was that every single one of those seeds was, even if just a speck, beginning to awaken causal energy.
“I’ll devour them all.”
A sly smile tugged at the corner of Chris’s lips.
Meanwhile, back on the surface.
The Dark Maga was shrouded in heavy silence.
All because of Christian.
“…Still no improvement?”
“…Yes, Lord.”
At Nordian’s question, Count Kazar answered grimly.
The battle in the Mystic Maga had been a complete victory.
The Mystic Maga, once known as Cheonwicheon—the strongest family in the Mage Empire—had been utterly destroyed without suffering a single loss.
Considering the Pope’s power and everything that had happened, it was nothing short of a miracle.
All thanks to Christian’s efforts.
“Damn it. So what are we supposed to do now?”
Count Kazar’s face twisted in frustration.