Chapter 475. Never Been Wrong
“W-What?” Ru Hiana stammered. ‘Did I hear her wrong?’ She frowned and asked, “What did you just say….?”
“…No.” Evelyn replied blankly, “The path to the next world…won’t open.” Until now, Evelyn had gone across several Astral Worlds and retrieved her allies. But rather than saving them, it would be more accurate to say that she had bought extra time for them since they couldn’t escape the Astral Worlds altogether. Of course, Evelyn expected the Abyss King to act at some point to undermine their progress. For example, they could arrive at a world that the Abyss King personally oversaw. Even though she had received the authority to move across the Astral Worlds, she knew it would be difficult to penetrate through a world that the Abyss King had personally established given that he possessed the same authority.
However, that time came earlier than she thought. According to her calculations, there should’ve still been the world with Balim left. Thus, she didn’t know how to interpret the current situation. Ru Hiana looked around nervously. As it had been with all the past worlds, Basilisk's world was also showing signs of disappearing.
Seeing the very world crumbling around her, Ru Hiana hurriedly asked, “What can we do now?”
No one answered. Ru Hiana grew even more anxious and turned back to Ru Amuh, but he also seemed at a loss for what to do. In the first place, they had only been able to reach this point thanks to Evelyn’s guidance. Had it not been for her, he would’ve been swept by Gotaya’s world and disappeared some time ago. Thus, even Ru Amuh couldn’t think of a solution to this problem.
Evelyn remained silent for a while until she let out the sigh she had been holding in. No matter how long she thought about it, she couldn’t think of a way out either, and escape appeared impossible. Thus, there was only one thing left for them to do, which was to trust the man who always turned the tide when things seemed impossible.
***
Chi-Hyun continued to survey the flow of the Astral World. The current situation didn’t look bad. He didn’t know who it was, but somebody was organizing the intertwined Astral Worlds one by one at an increasing speed. If the flow continued like this and the Astral Worlds returned to perfect stability, they wouldn’t have to worry about the side effects of their plan. But after a while, Chi-Hyun realized that he had called their victory prematurely.
The exact moment Evelyn arrived at Basilik’s World, Chi-Hyun sensed that another Astral World was warping. It truly was surprising because it happened before the flow that he had been keeping track of even reached there. He didn’t know what had happened exactly, but it appeared that the Shalyh’s expeditionary force there had succeeded in defeating the Chasm of the world they fell to without outside aid.
‘It’s not a complete impossibility.’ It would be possible if there was a hero like Ru Amuh, but something strange happened after that. That world crumbled at an exceedingly fast rate as if it was getting absorbed rather than disappearing. It truly was strange. A world didn’t disappear instantly after somebody defeated a Chasm. According to Chi-Hyun’s calculation, the flow he had been following should’ve reached the world before it completely disappeared. But how could this happen?
It was then Chi-Hyun realized that among the nine Astral Worlds, there was one with a particularly strong presence.
‘A world absorbed another world?’ That was something that seemed to surpass logic. Chi-Hyun realized that perhaps the very foundation of his calculation was wrong and decided to organize his thoughts. He needed to find out the cause of the abnormality.
‘Even I couldn’t predict the appearance of the sudden flow from inside the Astral Worlds. It’s very likely the Abyss King didn’t expect it either. But there’s no way he would remain inactive after sensing the flow…I’m sure he’s interfered somehow.’ Then, it seemed clear that the Astral World which was quickly expanding its influence was the root of everything that was happening—that was the Abyss King’s world. He could understand up to that point.
‘But why did he divide the worlds up like this? Into nine at that?’ Realizing that he had thought wrong in the first place, Chi-Hyun returned to the starting point of his thought process. Shalyh’s expeditionary forces were scattered into nine Astral Worlds, and they had to battle the Seven Chasms across each world. A flow suddenly appeared to counter that, but as if it was trying to hurriedly respond to the flow, a world was absorbed…
‘A medium acts as a preceding condition for something to exist. Thus, for an Astral World tethered to individual Chasms to continue existing…’ There must be a being that connected all of them. After thinking up to this point, Chi-Hyun arrived at a new hypothesis. Of course, he couldn’t be certain of it a hundred percent, and there was still something that didn’t align with his thoughts. But he at least had an idea of what the Abyss King’s true goal was and who could be the force behind all the unbelievable things he had done.
Yes, it was the group that had succeeded in being many but one: the Sernitas.
“…Is he out of his mind?” Chi-Hyun gritted his teeth. Having waited anxiously until now, Chi-Woo looked back at Chi-Hyun in surprise. “That’s what he decided in the end… His greed made him cross the line.”
“What are you talking about?” Chi-Woo asked, hearing Chi-Hyun’s murmur. Chi-Hyun sighed and explained, but because he used difficult words without intending to, Chi-Woo still looked at him confusedly.
“To make a comparison, think about the great war again.”
“The great war?”
“Yes. You saw the Sky Castle that time, right?”
Chi-Woo nodded. He certainly did. How could he forget? It gave him chills even thinking about it now.
“Think about the principles of operating the Sky Castle’s particle beam.”
“That’s—”
“It didn’t differentiate between ally and foe and swallowed up all that had died during the war. Then, after going through some sort of internal process, they turned the corpses into a form of energy.” Chi-Hyun spoke as if he had personally witnessed what had happened at that time.
“The Abyss King created the Astral Worlds after becoming part of the Sernitas for a similar reason. I’m sure it’s not exactly the same, but you can see a similarity at the core.”
In other words, if Shalyh’s expeditionary force died in the Astral Worlds, they would go through some kind of process and become energy. Then, they would be absorbed along with the chasms. After the Sernitasized Abyss King absorbed all the worlds, he would fight the two remaining enemies, Chi-Hyun and Chi-Woo. Even if the Shalyh’s expeditionary force defeated a Chasm in an Astral World, their victory had no significant effect on this plan since the Astral World would be absorbed when the Chasm disappeared. When that happened, the Shalyh’s expeditionary force would meet the same fate and turn into energy and fuel for the Abyss King. This was the plan that the Abyss King had thought of. Rather than a well-thought-out master plan, it was more like his last desperate attempt at survival.
It was like a cornered mouse trying to bite a cat. And that wouldn’t have mattered much to them if this mouse wasn’t becoming a monster mouse by the second. Of course, all this didn’t change the fact that the Abyss King had been backed into a corner. The Astral Worlds had gained stability compared to before, and Chi-Hyun had pinpointed the world where the Abyss King was.
“Then, shouldn’t we quickly go while the worlds are still around?” As Chi-Woo said, the best method seemed to be to penetrate through the world's passageways and get rid of the Abyss King. Everything would return to normal then. But with the move the Abyss King just made, Chi-Hyun’s plan was thwarted.
“…Chi-Woo.” Chi-Hyun suddenly asked a question to address the issue. “What about your intuition?”
Because he hadn’t expected this question, Chi-Woo stared at his brother blankly.
“What is your intuition telling you?” Chi-Hyun asked again. It really was a surprising question, but Chi-Woo focused on his intuition first. Soon afterward, his face turned a bit downcast.
“It’s not very good,” Chi-Woo said and caught himself when he saw Chi-Hyun’s face darken. This was probably not the answer his brother was looking for. However, he couldn’t have lied either, and his brother looked like he had been hit by a sudden calamity.
“Then—”
“Chi-Hyun, wait.”
Before Chi-Hyun could say something, Chi-Woo cut him off and said. “Let’s do it.”
“…”
“Let’s do as we originally planned to do. Before it’s too late.”
Chi-Hyun didn’t say anything, but he appeared pretty reluctant to go with the idea.
“What is it again?” Chi-Woo said frustratedly. “I will only understand if you tell me.”
Chi-Hyun seemed conflicted about whether he should tell Chi-Woo or not, but in the end, he opened his mouth. “The original plan was for me to open up a passageway…then both of us would go through the path and deal with the Abyss King.”
Though opening a passageway to an Astral World hadn’t been part of their original plan, they had decided back in Shalyh that the two of them would be the ones to fight the Abyss King.
“But that became impossible.”
“What? Why?”
“The Abyss King’s world rapidly grew stronger, and its influence is only becoming greater. If we just let it be, it could really blanket over this Middle World. Thus, if I am to open a passageway to the Astral World, I will have to continuously maintain it.”
“What, that’s…”
“With this level of influence, the Abyss King probably has omnipotence comparable to a god. If you don’t want to get completely dominated by that guy, you need to maintain your connection with the Middle World as much as possible. Only then would you be able to also wield your full power.”
In other words, it wouldn’t be enough for Chi-Hyun to open a passageway for them. He would need to forcefully maintain the connection after opening it up, or else the Abyss King would close the passageway again. Then no one knew what would happen. This was the reason Chi-Hyun hesitated.
“I need to remain here and manage the passageway. Under the current circumstances, that alone will keep my hands full.” In short, Chi-Woo would have to fight the Abyss King alone. It was then Chi-Woo realized why his brother’s expression had fallen when he heard his response. His brother worried for him and didn’t want to send him alone when the situation was turning for the worse. It was the same for Chi-Woo. What he had said before wasn’t a lie. He didn’t know exactly when it’d started, but he felt a sudden surge of alarm and anxiety.
Despite that, Chi-Woo replied coolly. “What? That’s all? I thought you would have something more serious to say. This is good actually.”
“?”
“I was getting annoyed that I had to share the work with you. With this, I will be able to take all the merits for myself. I was getting worried because I have been using too many merits these days. This is good.” Then Chi-Woo carefreely said he should use this opportunity to reach Grand Master tier too. But of course, that kind of talk didn’t work on Chi-Hyun.
“This isn’t something you can talk so carefreely about. You said you came to Liber because of me.”
“Well…”
“That’s the same for me.”
“…”
“After you came here, my first priority changed.” It changed from the salvation of Liber to his brother’s safe return home. Though Chi-Hyun spoke in a calm tone, his expression looked more serious than at any other time. “I know. The situation would only get worse over time. I know it’s best to send you away this instant too.”
That was why Chi-Hyun had asked Chi-Woo what his intuition was telling him. If Chi-Woo had said his intuition was telling him things weren’t bad, Chi-Hyun had planned to send him to the Abyss King’s world immediately. Yet Chi-Woo’s intuition was yelling at him that he mustn’t go, and knowing what that meant, Chi-Hyun couldn’t come to a decision.
Perhaps others would be baffled hearing that he was hesitating for something like his brother’s intuition, and Chi-Hyun would’ve usually agreed. He didn’t deny the importance of intuition, but he didn’t swear by it either. It was simply something to keep in mind. Yet there was an exception to all things, and Chi-Woo’s intuition was one of them. It was frighteningly accurate, and it didn’t turn off and on but instead remained consistent and boasted an accuracy rate of 100% since Chi-Woo was born. Knowing what the source of this abnormal intuition was, Chi-Hyun couldn’t ignore what it said further.
“I don’t know what you might think…but if I have to choose between all the Shalyh expeditionary force and you, I will choose you without hesitation.”
Chi-Woo pursed his lips. Before, he would’ve gotten angry with his brother, asking what nonsense he was spouting. But he didn’t get angry this time. He knew that his brother didn’t say those words out of malice, and after thinking from his brother’s perspective, he understood. His brother’s words were concise, but sincere. Still, that didn’t mean he would just accept what his brother said. At that moment, Chi-Woo felt a strange feeling of déjà vu.
[…I don’t know.]
[But…he was having a really hard time when I last met him.]
[Yeah. I’ve never seen him like that before. He was really regretful and self-deprecating.]
For some reason, what Future Yoo-Joo told him flashed through his mind. Yes, just as when he had acknowledged his fate in Future Yoo-Joo’s space, he felt like he was standing in front of an important fork for the future. He was originally planning to keep this a secret, but he thought he should reveal it to his brother. If he didn’t say it right now, he might really regret it as she had told him. Thus, Chi-Woo opened his mouth.
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