Chapter 200 – The Last, Not the End (Part Three)

Ssshh.

The shockwave from the massive collision slowly subsided.

The surroundings were utterly devastated, the entire mountain having been blown away. Baek Il-ho’s body tilted precariously before collapsing backward with a thud.

The battle was over.

Il-hyeon’s legs had also been obliterated, leaving behind grievous wounds, but they regenerated in an instant.

Baek Il-ho’s ability, on the other hand, was absorption, not regeneration.

The last impact had surpassed the limit of what he could contain. There was no way to restore his destroyed organs and the gaping wounds that pierced his body.

“In the end, I couldn’t protect this world either.”

Baek Il-ho murmured, closing his eyes calmly.

The three chances he had been given.

It was a privilege others could only dream of, yet he felt pathetic for having squandered them all.

Now, he would have to repeat this all over again, facing countless sacrifices against the monsters pouring from beyond the dimension and the monsters within.

But this experience had not been in vain.

He had identified all the unforeseen variables and possibilities. In the next life he was headed for, there would be no more mistakes.

“Ugh…”

A dizzying sensation he could never get used to coursed down his spine from the deep wounds piercing his entire body.

An image of his first death surfaced in his mind—the moment he was betrayed and brutally killed by the hands of his fellow humans.

The precious people who had risked their lives with him died before his very eyes, and he couldn’t even accept reality until the final sword was at his throat.

And in that last moment.

Faced with this wrongful end, he had desperately wished for another chance, a chance to set things right.

His earnest prayer to save the world had been answered, as if to make a point.

“It’s time.”

Baek Il-ho’s eyes shot open.

It was time to receive another chance and return to the past.

It wasn’t an ability or talent he had gained as an Awakened.

It was simply the privilege of a regressor.

He waited for the familiar sensation he felt each time he faced death.

Amidst the head-splitting pain, the feeling of his vision fading and his body floating would come in an instant. By the time his sight returned, he would be back in the familiar past.

Ryu Jin-tae’s face would be the first to greet him, in the midst of a mission during the hectic third cycle.

But it didn’t happen.

This time, the world did not side with him.

“What…?”

Even as his vision blurred, his consciousness was only sinking deeper.

He had no strength left to move even a finger, barely clinging to his precarious consciousness like a dying ember.

He was supposed to be regressing, but his current sensations showed no sign of stopping.

The question of *why* filled his mind.

It was unlikely that he was limited to only two regressions, and his desire to right the wrongs and save the world remained as strong as ever.

Then why?

“Ah… I see.”

Having guessed the reason, Baek Il-ho’s head slowly tilted.

If Il-hyeon, who would remain in this world, succeeded in everything.

And if the condition for his regression was to save humanity and create the future he desired.

Then there would no longer be a reason for him to regress.

“So you’re the one who will achieve it, Kang Il-hyeon.”

Baek Il-ho’s eyes wavered.

As he faced his end, countless thoughts raced through his mind, questioning if his actions had truly been the wrong choice.

But in his slowly fading senses, such worries were meaningless.

A strange sense of relief washed over him, the feeling of finally being able to set down the heavy burdens he had carried through his repeated regressions and rest.

Thud.

As his head fell, his final thread of consciousness snapped.

* * *

In the heart of the city, surrounded by a force field.

Eclipse and the Awakened who had gathered to stop them stood motionless.

As if by silent agreement, they had all stopped, no one swinging their swords.

The massive ripple from Il-hyeon and Baek Il-ho’s final clash, along with the appearance of a monstrous entity from the Gate, had caused a temporary lull in the fighting.

But the first to snap out of it was one of Eclipse’s members.

While everyone’s attention was elsewhere, he quickly raised his sword and activated his ability.

Crackle!

A powerful wave of sword energy, charged with electricity, shot forward, aimed at the gathered Aegis Awakened.

Noticing the attack too late, they scrambled to get out of the way, but it was approaching too fast.

And speed wasn’t the only problem.

It was a trump card combining two abilities, so potent that just a few uses could exhaust the caster. The attack was too powerful to be deflected.

“Damn it!”

BOOM!

A deafening explosion roared as the sword energy collided.

But the Aegis members who had been its target were completely unharmed.

The one who had taken the attack wasn’t them, but Il-hyeon.

“We’re alive…?”

“Timjang!”

Ohara, recognizing the one who had suddenly intervened, shouted.

Il-hyeon, who had instantly appeared among them via spatial movement, hadn’t even drawn his sword to defend. He simply took the full force of the sword energy and lightning with his bare body.

The Defensive Coat he wore had been disabled during the battle, and Il-hyeon hadn’t consciously activated any other abilities.

Even with his fortified body, he should have sustained heavy damage.

But there wasn’t a single scratch on him.

The reason was simple.

Crackle! Crackle!

A fierce current of electricity sparked along the arm Il-hyeon had used to block the attack.

The absorption ability he had gained from Baek Il-ho.

It allowed him to convert the incoming shock—the damage itself—entirely into his own energy.

And that absorbed energy could then be used to manifest other abilities.

Tssss!

When Il-hyeon lightly flicked his fingers, the space before him warped violently, and a shimmering fissure tore open.

From within that rift, countless Awakened in white coats came tumbling out.

Using his transformation ability, he had transported every single Eclipse Awakened within the city to this one location.

Then, Il-hyeon manipulated the space once more, hitting them with a powerful shockwave and successfully neutralizing every last one of them.

Struck by just enough force to knock them unconscious, the Eclipse Awakened didn’t stir even after being released from the distorted space.

“My god…”

Most people’s eyes went wide with astonishment at the unbelievable sight, accomplished with just two gestures. Lee Soo-yeon, who was right nearby, ran over joyfully.

“You really did it!”

“Boss! I knew you could!”

Not just her, but Ghost and Jeong Jin-seong also rushed over for a fierce embrace, while he and Seok Pil-joon shared a silent smile and a brief, firm handshake.

All of Eclipse’s plans had been thwarted, and everyone had been reunited safely.

But even in this situation, they couldn’t simply rejoice.

“Timjang, the Guardian is almost here.”

Ohara, arriving a step behind, said as she pointed to the sky.

Il-hyeon nodded and opened his mouth.

“There’s still one major hurdle left.”

“The one you called the Guardian, right?”

“The final one. It’s arrived much earlier than scheduled.”

The final Guardian was breaking the established order and revealing itself.

With no time to even catch their breath, they now had to face it.

Rumble!

As if on cue, the gaping Gate in the sky began to emit a powerful pulse.

“Everyone, get ready! The real one is coming!”

At Lee Soo-yeon’s shout, the other Awakened who had been approaching them snapped to attention and raised their weapons.

And then, the creature from beyond the dimension finally revealed itself.

A mysterious black substance slowly descended from the Gate.

“What the…”

“What is that thing?”

The Awakened who had been preparing for battle couldn’t hide their bewilderment.

They had expected a terrifying monster, but what appeared was a simple, small, spherical object.

But Il-hyeon, the only one with the predation ability, instinctively knew what it was.

CRASH!

The black sphere didn’t change its trajectory, simply falling and crashing onto the distant ground.

It lay motionless, like an object with no will of its own.

But soon, its true form was revealed.

CRACKLE!

The sphere, now planted in the ground, expanded and swelled rapidly as black stems shot high into the sky.

The sphere had just been a seed. Soon, tens of thousands of living roots spread across the ground, tearing up the earth.

CRACK!

In an instant, the colossal, monstrous plant grew stems and branches, its form swelling to blot out the sky before the Awakened.

Its size was surreal, its appearance grotesque.

Each black stem writhed as if it were a living creature, continuously spewing a rotten fluid in all directions.

The land touched by its roots, which sucked the life from the surroundings, was instantly contaminated, decaying into a wretched state.

Its name was unknown.

Even Baek Il-ho’s Eclipse, which knew of the monsters that would appear in the future, had not defined a name for it.

Because after it appeared, there was no future for humanity.

“A plant-type? I’ve never seen anything that huge…”

“Let’s move… wait, why isn’t my ability working?”

An Awakened who had been gripping his sword stared blankly at his own hand when his ability failed to activate.

He wasn’t the only one.

The abilities of every Awakened gathered there, the powers held by their summoned creatures, even the foresight and spatial designation of Il-hyeon’s two swords.

Every single power had been nullified, unable to be activated.

Even Il-hyeon, who possessed an ability resistant to this kind of interference, couldn’t manifest any of his powers.

The ability of a monster on another level entirely.

“We have to go.”

But there was no time to stand around in a daze.

Even now, the creature’s stems and roots were multiplying endlessly. At this rate, the entire world would be devoured.

“Timjang!”

Hyeon-seo, having lowered the force field, had already run over and arrived.

The members of Alpha, Gamma, and Delta teams all came with her, standing by his side.

And,

“Kang Il-hyeon!”

Seo Jeong-hwa shouted as she appeared.

Not just her, but the other Beta Team members who had destroyed the launch platform also scrambled up from the underground.

Every ability they had was nullified.

He definitely couldn’t win this alone.

But by his side were the comrades who had remained with him until the very end, through countless battles.

“This is the final battle. Watch my back.”