Chapter 350

Chapter 350
Chapter 350

An era where even the divine were consumed by avarice, a period when even the most malevolent deities felt the sting of longing.

It was impossible to calculate the sheer magnitude of the strength the Demon of Greed had gathered over time.

Shortly thereafter, the Demon of Greed made his appearance.

Rumble!

The foundations of an unnamed peak shattered and collapsed.

“What is this? Why has the world fallen into such a state?”

Emerging from a dense cloud of debris and silt.

He scowled, his features twisting in a deep grimace.

The Demon of Greed had been deep in meditation and study.

His goal was to decipher and master the various arts and authorities of every god he had previously clashed with.

He had sequestered himself within the mountain range to reach a higher plane of understanding.

Having only just achieved that mental breakthrough and stepped back into the light, he was understandably stunned to find the world teetering on the edge of oblivion.

“There it is. The entity responsible for fracturing the world.”

The vibration of Ruin could be detected from a great distance.

It was overwhelming.

The malice radiating from it was so potent it dwarfed the aura of any deity he had ever encountered.

Perhaps that was the reason.

“Incredible! To think a creature of such power still walks this earth!”

Greed felt a surge of genuine joy.

It was a pure, unadulterated thrill.

He knew that by engaging such a foe, he could push his own limits and ascend to even greater heights.

‘His knowledge is far more precise than I anticipated.’

As the narrative unfolded, my curiosity deepened.

The Lost God standing before me.

He was undeniably a dark deity, so how was he so well-informed about the plight of the others?

‘He’s a fallen one.’

I came to a silent realization.

The Lost God in my presence was a divinity who had succumbed to darkness.

He likely started as a member of the holy Pantheon but was corrupted into an evil god following the advent of Ruin.

Furthermore, his familiarity with Greed’s history was meticulous.

It was as if he had observed those events unfolding in real-time.

…Hold on. Could he actually be one of the goddesses?

No, his physical manifestation was clearly that of an elderly man.

—Greed launched an assault on Ruin.

“How did it end?”

—What do you imagine? He was utterly and decisively crushed.

“…”

—However, Ruin chose to let Greed survive. Since all demonic entities were inadvertently fueling ‘Ruin’ anyway, it decided there was no need to execute him.

“So it spared him because their goals happened to overlap?”

—In a manner of speaking. The issue was… Greed did not stop. He kept attacking even after that defeat. Can you call it anything other than complete lunacy?

“…He definitely sounds like he lost his mind.”

I wanted to disagree, but I couldn’t ignore how much Greed reminded me of myself.

That relentless drive to give everything, even when the rest of the world sees it as a suicidal or crazy endeavor.

The singular, burning hunger to grow stronger.

—Maybe that is why the two goddesses eventually chose to support Greed. Of all the heavenly host, only those two stood by his side. And for the first time since Ruin appeared, Greed managed to inflict a physical injury on it. It was merely a minor graze, but it was the first time anyone had drawn blood.

“Is that the reason Ruin ceased its advance?”

—No. Ruin continued its path of global annihilation. But… it seems Ruin felt a spark of intrigue. Witnessing two goddesses and a demon working in tandem. Watching beings that should be fundamentally incompatible find harmony… that was likely the seed that grew into the concept of ‘The End’.

In that instant.

The projection of the Lost God began to turn translucent.

Vibration! Rumble!

The shaking of the World Tree grew more violent.

Then.

—Following those events, Ru…in… Argh-ugh-gaaaah!

The agony returned.

But this time, it showed no signs of receding.

—Please… grant me the peace of death…!

The Lost God cried out in desperation.

The conclusion was drawing near.

He thrashed against the coming void, terrified of a pathetic and lingering demise.

At that moment, I made my move.

《Initiating transformation into the ‘Park Hyunmyeong’ form stored within the ‘Ash’ Gauntlets.》

《Allocating ‘5’ points of Sanctification to the ‘Dormant Sigil’.》

《The ‘Sigil’ has been fully triggered.》

《Planting the triggered sigil into the earth will result in the growth of a ‘World Tree’.》

《Placing the triggered sigil upon a ‘Sanctuary of a Lost God’ will allow said ‘Lost God’ to reclaim their identity, and life associated with the ‘Restored Deity’ will begin to manifest throughout the realm.》

I was going to rescue the Lost God standing right here.

—What… what are you doing—!

The Lost God was struck by confusion.

—This energy… this is the sovereign power of the Star Maker!

He clearly never expected me to wield such a divine authority.

—But it is futile if you do not have my sanctuary. Even I have forgotten where my sacred ground was established…

“It’s right here.”

—Here…?

“This very spot is your sanctuary.”

The Lost God.

The entity referred to as Ancient.

As his image flickered out of existence, the world around us was also fading away.

I finally grasped the truth.

The architect who had built an alternate reality within the World Tree’s Labyrinth.

It was the old man standing before me.

He had relocated his own sacred site to this internal space.

Therefore, this pocket dimension was essentially his sanctuary.

Without hesitation, I drove the glowing sigil into the floor.

《You have successfully placed the ‘Triggered Sigil’ upon the ‘Sanctuary of a Lost God’.》

Simultaneously.

《The ‘Lost God’ has recovered their true name!》

My name is.

The Lost God.

A personage who had been eclipsed by time for so long that his entire identity had been stripped away.

The only things he had left were fragile, threadbare recollections.

And those were memories from an incredibly distant past.

He was kept alive only by fragmented visions of a time of peak splendor and wealth.

‘I always wondered about this.’

He had been plagued by questions.

Why was he dwelling on the memories of others instead of his own life?

Why was he clinging to existence through scenes involving the two goddesses and the Demon of Greed?

Even now, as he faced the final curtain.

That curiosity was the only thing that had prevented him from fading away entirely.

While every other Lost God had succumbed to the passage of time, he remained.

‘Who… am I?’

The desire to know was agonizing.

But no matter how hard he fought to remember, the answer eluded him.

Every memory pertaining to his own self had been bleached from history.

Looking inward revealed only a vast, silent void.

He knew neither the cause of his erasure nor the reason for his current location.

It was an eternal, repetitive cycle of suffering.

Disappearing in such a state seemed too cruel to bear.

So, when the manifestation of The End appeared.

‘Aha! The End has arrived to signal my release!’

He felt a sense of triumph.

The End was the herald of finality.

The one who dictates the stopping point of all things.

He was certain this entity would finally break his loop of misery.

However, the essence of the soul within The End looked remarkably like someone from those old visions.

‘…Greed. Why are you the one standing here?’

The Demon of Greed.

The one who should have been long dead was appearing in the guise of The End.

He carried a shadow deeper than any abyss, yet within that darkness shone a magnificent light that surpassed everything else.

‘Ah. Lea, Pina. You are still by his side…’

The Lost God found his lips curling into a subconscious smile.

They hadn’t left him.

Even in this transformed era, they were still embracing Greed with unwavering affection.

Looking back, until the moment the world began to sink into the dark, no other deities besides Lea and Pina had offered Greed their support.

They shunned him because he was a demon.

They were blinded by the assumption that his very nature was inherently wicked.

Only those two goddesses had committed themselves to him.

If… if things had been different, perhaps the Demon of Greed could have truly saved the world from Ruin.

‘They are as stunning as they ever were.’

He was a stark contrast to them.

Unlike him—faded, forgotten, and twisted—they were held together by a profound, unbreakable trust.

The sight was so moving that…

…The Lost God felt a heavy pressure in his chest.

It was a sharp, aching sensation.

Why?

A smile remained on his face, but he was overwhelmed by a grief he couldn’t explain.

One thing was certain.

That connection that defied time,

That absolute devotion.

‘Greed, have you achieved the state of The End that even Ruin couldn’t reach?’

He must have finally perfected the concept of The End.

Then again, if anyone could do it, it would be Greed.

The man simply didn’t understand the concept of surrender.

His tenacity was so extreme it had left the gods speechless.

The solitary figure who eventually challenged and overcame every single god in the Pantheon.

Though he had fallen in his initial clash with Ruin…

The Lost God was aware of a hidden truth.

If there had been more time, if the world hadn’t been so fractured.

If the divine host hadn’t treated Greed like an outcast.

Greed would have been the one standing victorious over Ruin.

Ruin likely realized this as well.

That was why Ruin…

What did… Ruin do?

‘My recollection…’

The memory snapped at that point.

But the severed threads of his past began to weave themselves back together.

There was a single catalyst.

…The Demon of Greed.

Having purged the darkness from himself, he had evolved into a completely different being.

His physical form was no longer that of the demon, but.

‘It is identical. Your very soul.’

The silhouette of the soul became sharply defined.

It was genuinely… exquisite.

The soul belonging to the Demon of Greed was shaped like a celestial body.

A radiant star pulsing with a brilliant golden hue.

He had never seen any creature with a star-shaped soul as vivid as this.

Moreover, the technique he was currently employing was the divine right of the ‘Star Maker’.

The authority of genesis.

How could the power of creation and the power of The End exist in the same vessel?

It was a paradox that should be impossible, even with the goddesses’ favor.

‘There is a second one. Another soul. One of immense brilliance.’

Only then did the Lost God realize the truth.

There was a second soul accompanying them.

This presence was so gargantuan that the Lost God couldn’t even perceive its boundaries.

It was likely due to this presence that Greed was able to wield the power of creation.

Who could it possibly be?

The Lost God’s gaze eventually met the eyes of that sanctified soul, and.

‘My memories… they’ve come back.’

…The lost history that had been erased finally rushed to the surface.

The Lost God stared at Greed with eyes that shook with emotion.

Slowly, he parted his lips to speak.

“My name is…”

✺✺✺

“You really are remarkably powerful!”

The Demon of Greed, covered in wounds and bruises, trembled with excitement.

The reality surpassed his wildest dreams.

He had believed he had reached a level of power far beyond his previous self, yet he was still no match for Ruin.

“How can you be this strong? Come on, you have to show me!”

“…”

“Actually, forget it. I need to figure it out on my own. I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Accepting his loss for the day, the Demon of Greed gave a casual wave and vanished.

“…”

Ruin remained seated on its throne, motionless.

It simply watched the spot where the Demon of Greed had been standing.

It hadn’t even found it necessary to stand up to handle the intruder.

Granted, the fact that he had carved a path through the Knights of Ruin to reach the throne room was a significant achievement, but.

“…”

Ruin looked out with eyes full of exhaustion, then let its eyelids flutter shut.

Its singular purpose was to bring about the destruction of the world.

Its function was to submerge all existence into the void.

The demons were actually helping this process.

By accelerating the decay, they were useful, so there was no incentive to hunt down the demons of original sin.

The demons often fought amongst themselves, but they were surprisingly efficient when it came to the big picture.

They were also opportunistic and wary.

If Ruin were to kill Greed, the other demons would likely flee and hide.

Keeping him alive was strategically sound.

The problem arose the following day.

“…”

“I’ve returned! Let’s go for another round!”

…Because he had actually come back.

Left with no other choice, Ruin used its overwhelming strength to sever both of Greed’s arms.

Yet, the Demon of Greed refused to quit.

“Once more!”

The next day.

“Once more…!”

And the day after that.

Despite clearly seeing the insurmountable gap in their abilities, Greed continued his relentless assault.

After many suns and moons had passed in this cycle, Ruin finally understood.

The reason Greed was healing at such an unnatural rate was the intervention of the two goddesses.

Divine beings were performing miracles to mend a demon.

Elements that should never mingle—like oil and water—were operating in perfect synchronization.

This was happening while humans and gods alike were busy betraying one another.

“…”

But that was the extent of it.

Ruin was simply tired.

In the midst of its monotonous existence, the man’s persistence provided a tiny flicker of amusement.

If Ruin were to deploy its four primary knights, the man wouldn’t even make it through the front door… but they were currently occupied with the destruction of the empire.

“…”

And yet.