Chapter 359

Chapter 359
Chapter 359

—

Hypnos, the God of Dreams, lifted his gaze to peer past the far horizon.

He had felt a vibration in the world—something that should have remained dormant had surfaced in a distant province.

‘…Have you finally chosen to invoke the strength of Ruin?’

Hypnos was well aware of the true nature of Park Hyunmyeong.

He knew the man held the authority of Ruin and was the literal embodiment of ‘The End’.

While Park Hyunmyeong had previously assumed the mantle of ‘The End’ and manipulated Ruin’s power within the confines of the World Tree, this place was Pangenia.

There was no way to mask such an aura here.

In truth, he likely had no desire to conceal it.

By this moment, several powerful entities across the world must have sensed the emergence of Ruin.

Hypnos gave a slow shake of his head.

‘With the Pantheon of the Hundred Gods dissolved, the Outer Gods have found their opportunity to run wild.’

There was an Outer God entrenched in Adrium.

And it wasn’t limited to that city alone.

Beings from beyond the stars were manifesting throughout the entire realm.

These Outer Gods were systematically consuming the lingering ‘Divine Majesty of Gods’ to usurp their positions.

This was occurring because the current state of Pangenia provided the perfect environment for these Outer Gods to take root.

‘The profound turmoil and the vacuum left by the fallen deities have started to beckon them.’

There was no divinity remaining with a status high enough to block their path, much less a governing body like the Pantheon of the Hundred Gods.

Since this was a land previously ravaged by Ruin, there were no survivors who could be considered their inherent rivals.

To the Outer Gods, this world had become a blissful sanctuary.

Yet, these ‘Outer Gods’ required an anchor; they could not manifest without someone to call them forth.

‘The Balrog Cult. They are the ones summoning these Outer Gods without restraint.’

Hypnos had once served as the Eye of Ruin.

From his spire built within the ‘Sanctuary of Honor’, he kept watch over the world.

Through this observation, he had confirmed that the ‘Balrog Cult’ was the primary force responsible for inviting these extraterrestrial horrors.

The Balrog Cult.

They were a peculiar and unsettling collective.

Did they truly intend to subjugate Pangenia by flooding it with Outer Gods?

Currently, they were trespassing upon the domains of various deities and providing physical shells for the Outer Gods to inhabit, facilitating a ‘god devouring’ process.

Initially, because these territories held only the fading ‘Divine Majesty of a God’, suppressing the resident spirits was a simple task.

Following the passing of the goddess, Pangenia lacked any legitimate primary gods to defend it.

If an Outer God could successfully occupy a region where divine traces remained, it could simply step into that god’s identity.

It was exactly what the entity in Adrium had done to the goddess.

Hypnos rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

‘The Balrog Cult is spreading its shadow with incredible speed. There must be a mastermind pulling the strings.’

Summoning an Outer God was never a simple feat.

One had to construct or locate a vessel capable of housing such a being, and there were precious few locations on the continent with the capacity to manage such immense levels of cosmic information.

Furthermore, the ‘Balrog Cult’ was maintaining ties with the ‘Land of the Abyss’.

Were they seeking an alliance with the abyssal terrors, including the Heavenly Demon?

Despite the rapid expansion of their reach, they remained eerily quiet.

The entire operation was being shrouded in deep secrecy.

‘The empire is a participant. But the empire does not represent the whole picture.’

There was only one entity capable of orchestrating such a grand scale of events.

The Arhon Empire.

Still, the Arhon Empire was not the sole patron fostering the growth of the Balrog Cult.

Hypnos pushed the limits of his sensory range.

He felt a pressing need to investigate this specific connection with greater scrutiny.

Before long, the focus of Hypnos’s vision settled upon a ‘particular individual’.

“Hmm…!”

Hypnos gasped, his eyes snapping shut from the shock.

When he opened them again, his expression was one of pure disbelief.

“How… can he still be among the living?”

Deep within the hierarchy of the Balrog Cult, he had spotted a face he recognized.

The issue was the impossibility of it.

“The Dark Elf Lord… he has survived after all these eons?”

It defied logic.

The ‘Dark Elf Lord’ that Hypnos remembered was a figure belonging to the Golden Age.

Vast ages had passed since that era.

By all accounts, he should have crumbled into nothingness and bone long ago.

Moreover, when Hypnos had focused on him, the Dark Elf Lord had returned the gaze.

He had detected Hypnos’s scouting—an ability that even the gods had failed to notice.

The fact that he had sensed it was undeniable proof that he was no simple Dark Elf.

Was he another Outer God?

Or perhaps an ‘operator’?

If that were the case, why was he assisting the Balrog Cult and acting as a servant to the Black King?

‘The forces of evil are gathering.’

…Evil was congregating.

A malice far more significant than he had anticipated.

It was pure chaos, masquerading as a beacon of light.

It was a brand of evil unlike anything that had ever surfaced before.

The world remained ignorant.

Silently and covertly, this darkness was swallowing the light.

The current strength of the light was far too fragile to resist them.

‘But the same applies to you; you are equally unaware.’

However… at the same time, those dark forces were in the dark.

They did not know that another Ruin, The End, Park Hyunmyeong, was present here.

They had no idea that if he commenced the ‘God Erasing’, they would be forced into a state of total panic.

An Outer God draped in the stolen majesty of a local deity could never be immune to the touch of Ruin.

And that wasn’t the half of it.

There was the matter of what Park Hyunmyeong had claimed upon exiting the World Tree’s Dungeon.

That ‘Feather of the Outer God’ was a critical factor.

…Hypnos understood its significance because he had heard the details from Ruin himself.

Among the chronicles Ruin had shared, there was a specific mention of a being tied to that very feather.

‘…It belonged to the entity who nearly succeeded in toppling the heavens.’

And quite possibly.

‘The Bluebird… could that operator be the figure the Outer Gods refer to as ‘His Excellency’?’

Hypnos speculated that the feather might have originated from the ‘Bluebird’.

Had I failed to conquer the World Tree’s Dungeon.

Had I not arrived here immediately afterward, I would have remained oblivious to the true scale of the crisis.

I would have been helpless against the Outer God posing as a deity.

Furthermore, had I not earned a mountain of Ruin Points by obliterating the icons of the ‘Forgotten Gods’, I never would have mastered the ‘method of erasing a god’.

‘There is no reason to hold back anymore.’

Since I still lacked total mastery over the power of Randolph, I had no plans to show my hand prematurely.

However, invoking the power of Ruin did not strictly require a transformation into Randolph.

I had been reluctant to tap into the essence of Ruin itself.

I had operated under the assumption that the presence of Ruin would bring nothing but harm to Pangenia.

But I was mistaken.

Connecting the pieces of the information provided by Hypnos, I realized that utilizing the power of ‘Ruin’ was the only definitive way to purge the Outer Gods.

“I am the Ruin you fear.”

Ruin was not synonymous with light, nor was it darkness.

It was the natural predator of both.

There was a reason even the most malicious gods lived in terror of it.

Therefore, I decided to strike a chord of dread into the encroaching evil and shadow.

I would manifest an overwhelming display of power so they wouldn’t even dream of opposing me.

“Wh-what is this? This is the energy of ‘Ruin’…?!”

The Outer God, finally recognizing me as its fatal counter, let out a piercing shriek.

The momentum had completely shifted.

The arrogant smirk vanished from the Outer God’s features.

A dark veil of Ruin descended upon the sanctified streets of Adrium.

And then, the notification appeared.

《A ‘Tower of Ruin’ has manifested in ‘Adrium’.》

《Should the ‘Tower of Ruin’ remain standing after 48 hours, ‘Adrium’ shall be transformed into a ‘Land of Ruin’ and the ‘Goddess (Outer God)’ will be stripped of her authority.》

Observing the Tower of Ruin as it pierced the sky,

I spoke with calm confidence.

“Go on then. Try to climb up like the cur you are. You pathetic, nameless godling.”