Chapter 960

C960

The explosion instantly enveloped Jin and Murakan.

Jin and Murakan had no choice but to revise their plans. Now that Elona had stopped, if they forcefully confronted Kelliark, it would mean the imminent destruction of the True Demon World.

It’s true that the Demon World invaded the human world, but it was a great tragedy caused by Zito’s brainwashing.

The True Demon World without Zito is a land where demons live as ordinary people.

It was the homeland of tens of billions of demons and an entire world existing underground.

Jin couldn’t stand idly by while the True Demon World disappeared.

Most importantly, if he didn’t stop the explosion right now, it would also cause significant damage to his allies outside the battlefield.

Valeria’s side would undoubtedly suffer, and even the human world fleet that had just arrived in Hell would be completely annihilated.

The explosion Kelliark had caused was an unprecedented massive explosion, at least in human history. Moreover, it wasn’t just a simple explosion, but also magic transformed by the authority of the Fire God.

The fire of destruction, the supreme authority through which Sheenu overwhelmed other gods for a long time before becoming obsessed with creating the Orb of Origin.

That fire was now attempting to consume Jin and Murakan. Only the small area between Kelliark and Elona remained unscathed by the fire.

“No, no…”

Kelliark slowly descended towards Elona. Elona’s face paled, and she took a step back.

As the distance between the two shortened, Elona’s hair gradually began to change. Her long white hair, symbolizing her pure-blooded Zipple lineage, turned golden.

Uncontrollable and passionate emotions surged in her chest. Memories of terrible experiments in the darkness of a thousand years ago, days of longing for light, and a strong desire to put on that laurel wreath as soon as possible, all stabbed into her chest like sharp fragments.

The memories of the old days and the meaning of her existence that she realized after meeting Jin just now were incomparably miserable feelings compared to her primal desires for the laurel wreath.

Kelliark stood before Elona.

Elona was still trying her best to resist her instincts somehow.

She tried to gather her mana to attack Kelliark and move her legs to get away from him, even just a little.

However, her mana remained inactive, unresponsive like a powerless engine, and she was already on her knees. Elona couldn’t do anything. Her eyes were vacant, and her breathing was slow and stifled.

“It’s a pitiful life when you know nothing about yourself. The truths you’ve strived so hard to uncover are all lies, and the countless meanings you give to finding yourself are nothing but futile obsessions… You are a miserable being, Elona.”

*Don’t listen, don’t listen to what Kelliark says!*

Occasionally, Murakan’s distant voice could be heard. He and Jin were already far away, desperately trying to block the fire of destruction, pushing it further back with each passing moment.

Elona didn’t recognize that voice. She only heard it as a vague echo of the wind running through the cave.

Kelliark was keenly aware of this fact. Rather, he took comfort in it. It was further confirmed that Jin and Murakan hadn’t given up on the True Demon World.

Therefore, this process wouldn’t be interrupted by them. It might be possible to avoid the complete annihilation of the True Demon World with two Genesis Knights, but saving Elona wasn’t possible.

“They want to help you. But will that truly help you, Elona? Your life is filled with unhappiness, doubt, destruction, and carnage. You’re always drowning in self-loathing… because you don’t know who you are. And they can’t tell you.”

Kelliark brought the laurel wreath closer to Elona’s head. Now, her hair shone brightly like the sun.

“So, it’s time for you to take a moment to confront yourself.”

The moment the laurel wreath touched Elona’s head, it moved like a snake and wrapped around her head. Then it floated upwards and began to rotate above her head.

Elona opened her eyes for the first time at that moment.

Her pupils were shattering. Fragments of her pupils scattered across the whites of her eyes, resembling a small galaxy.

At the same time, Elona began to plummet into her own memories.

***

It was about 2,500 years ago that humans discovered Elona Zipple, or a being that could be called her original form.

At that time, the name Runcandel didn’t yet exist, and the Zipple Magicians, who were particularly favored by the gods, had dominated the world for a long time.

Reginald Zipfel, the fourth Zipple patriarch, discovered a hidden ruin beneath one of the kingdoms of the Lutero Magical Federation.

The land was bathed in a green light of life, and for a complete mana body, just being in that land could cure any illness or injury.

You couldn’t feel hunger there, and you wouldn’t feel tired no matter how much strength you used.

Reginald sensed the power of that land and designated it as the Zipple ‘Holy Land.’ Only the patriarch and his closest aides could enter the Holy Land, and this secret has been preserved to this day.

“This place wasn’t created by the existing gods, Vichelin.”

Vichelin nodded at Reginald’s words. Vichelin was Zipple’s second-in-command at the time and a contractor of Melzaier.

“As you say, Patriarch, no god we know could create such a perfect land. Neither my contracted god, Lord Melzaier, nor even Lord Sheenu, whom we consider our main god.”

“I have no intention of challenging the gods. We are ruling the world thanks to the excessive love of the gods.”

But thinking in another way, Zipple was dominating the world through the power of contracts with the gods. It was also a sign that they were slaves to the gods.

Escaping the control of the gods was Reginald’s long-cherished desire.

That’s why he began obsessively exploring various ruins and objects from the past to find the secrets of the world. Therefore, Reginald’s discovery of the Holy Land in the depths of the kingdom was by no means a coincidence; it was the result of Zipple’s most extensive investment of resources and time.

They couldn’t hear the gods’ voices in the Holy Land. And the gods couldn’t interfere with this land.

Furthermore, the gods never spoke of anything related to the Holy Land, and there were many instances where they had no idea of its existence.

This fact came to Reginald as if it were fate. If he could make good use of this unknown ruin, Zipple could become not just a clan favored by the gods, but perhaps even a god itself.

“In my opinion, this place is a trace of some great being that existed at the beginning. The god of gods, the one who created the world. It must be a trace of such a being.”

“The Creator’s land…”

“It would sound absurd if those who haven’t seen this place heard it. But you can feel it even now, can’t you Vichelin? The fact that this land is the domain of a transcendent being.”

“Yes, Orabeoni. Otherwise, there are too many things that can’t be explained.”

“We will study this land and become the true rulers of the world. We were guided here by the Creator, and we are the ones who can surpass the gods and make the world perfect.”

A conversation between Reginald and Vichelin.

The reason Elona remembers their voices so clearly is simple. She was there, standing in the center of the Holy Land at that time.

She didn’t understand the human language back then, but she could remember it. She had been alone in endless solitude, so even though she didn’t understand their words, they sounded infinitely sweet.

She wanted to converse with them.

It was the first desire Elona had ever had. She anxiously waited for Reginald and Vichelin to arrive at the Holy Land, and her waiting gradually turned into pain.

A day or two started to become difficult for her, who had spent over a thousand or ten thousand years without a second thought.

“Orabeoni! Orabeoni… ! Please look at this. The Holy Water is splitting in half!”

“What is this!”

“There’s something inside the Holy Water… A, a person!?”

Elona had the power to turn her desires into reality.

Unconsciously, she found a more suitable form than a tree for interaction. She took a form that resembled the humans like Reginald and Vichelin, whom she had been waiting for every day.

“Creator!”

When she first emerged from the tree, she appeared as the Elona Zipple known to people today. She looked very much like the more talkative Vichelin, but with hair that shone like the sun and small galaxies flowing within her eyes.

“Creator!”

Reginald and Vichelin bowed deeply before Elona. At that moment, Elona realized that the world she had dreamed of and the world she had actually encountered were different.

The breath of humans, which she felt for the first time after leaving the tree. Their smell, their appearance, the clothes they wore, their attitudes, their expressions: all of it brought an unpleasantness she had never even imagined.

It was as if she had come face to face with insects wriggling inside a rotten log. Elona shuddered, but the prostrate brothers didn’t see her expression at that moment.

“Ugh… Ugh.”

She simply expressed her displeasure and waved her hand once.

In response, the mana of the Holy Land gathered and formed a sharp wind in an instant. Vichelin was swept away by the sharp wind and disappeared without a trace.

Vichelin was the first to notice Elona’s change, but she met her death without even seeing Elona’s face properly.

“V-Vichelin!”

Elona didn’t feel any particular pleasure in killing Vichelin.

She only wished for these filthy creatures to disappear from her sight as soon as possible. However, after seeing all this, she also had the intuition that she could never go back to the way things were.

So from that moment on, Elona only had one desire.

To eliminate all unpleasant things from the world.

“What… What is this? Creator, haven’t we chosen to serve you? Why are you doing this?”

Elona didn’t answer, but she waved her hand again, attempting to kill Reginald.

However, Reginald, unlike Vichelin, assumed a defensive stance even in the midst of despair. He was the strongest human in the human world at that time.

He used his skills and combat experience to resist Elona’s simple and relentless attacks. He managed to escape.

But Reginald had lost an arm and the patriarch’s staff in an attempt to escape the Holy Land. The kingdom where the Holy Land was discovered was destroyed because of their battle.

That was the first encounter between Elona and the Zipple clan.