Chapter 203 – The Last, Not the End (Final)

All three cores shattered.

With the cores that allowed it to constitute its body all destroyed, the countless stems forming the last guardian’s torso began to fall away, one by one.

The colossal form came crashing down, and the branches that had blanketed the sky crumbled into dust and vanished.

The ominous, crimson-stained sky, from which the Gate was now receding, gradually returned to its original state, and the seemingly endless howls of the monsters faded away.

An awkward silence hung in the air for a moment.

Sssshhh.

In the middle of the piled debris, a white light swirled around Il-hyeon, who stood leaning on the sword embedded in the ground.

When the guardian’s cores were destroyed, the Ether contained within them poured out, all of it naturally drawn to Il-hyeon’s body, which possessed the Predation ability.

And as the swirling white light seeped into his body and subsided, Il-hyeon slowly rose to his feet.

The massive energy held by the last guardian had been completely absorbed.

His wounds had vanished without a trace, and the fatigue that had made his entire body creak was nowhere to be found.

Unlike with humans, from whom he could only absorb abilities, he could make the monsters’ power and abilities entirely his own.

Snap!

Il-hyeon flicked his fingers, activating an ability.

With the final guardian’s fall, his abilities were usable again, and Il-hyeon used Spatial Movement to summon the healers who had been on standby in the rear.

They may not have been at a level to join the battle, but they were second to none when it came to healing wounds.

They knew they would be called once the fight was over, but they were still horrified when they were suddenly summoned to the ruined landscape and the battered state of the team leaders.

But this wasn’t the only place where the battle had raged.

Fwoosh!

The bodies and the injured from the left and right flanks were all moved here.

As expected, not everyone had made it through the fierce battle unscathed.

However, among the group of healers on standby was Gwen, who possessed the SSS-rank ability of Resurrection. As long as too much time hadn’t passed, she could even revive those who had died during the battle.

Looking around, Gwen’s gaze fell on Il-hyeon, and they exchanged a brief look.

But they postponed any heartfelt conversation for later.

“Everyone, hurry!”

She led the dazed healers toward the injured.

Il-hyeon turned his head and, leaving the exhausted people for a moment, walked toward the center of the guardian’s sundered corpse.

He needed to use his ability to heal those with severed limbs, and there was much he wanted to say to his teammates for their hard work, but it wasn’t quite the end yet.

“Squeak!”

A mouse came running from somewhere and scurried up onto Il-hyeon’s shoulder in a single bound.

Then it spat out the fragments of the auxiliary core it had been carrying in its mouth.

Il-hyeon chuckled and stroked the creature’s head. The emboldened mouse puffed out its chest and squeaked proudly.

“You’ve gotten unbelievably strong, Master. You seem worthy of using me now.”

“Is that all?”

Il-hyeon replied, now used to such remarks. He wiped the black, sticky substance from the blade with a single swipe and sheathed Peacemaker.

As Il-hyeon continued walking even after the fight was over, Peacemaker chattered from his hip.

“Where are you going, Master?”

“There’s still work to be done.”

The last guardian he had just slain was certainly the most powerful foe.

But he couldn’t be certain that it was the only one of its kind capable of interdimensional travel.

Even with the strongest guardian dead, their world was likely still intact, and there was a high chance they were still ravaging countless other dimensions.

It was impossible to know how many worlds had been destroyed by them so far, or how many more they would continue to destroy by crossing dimensions.

Even for Peacemaker, whose future sight was now unconditional, peering into other dimensions was impossible.

And that was why there was something he had to do.

Once he was a sufficient distance from the others, Il-hyeon stopped in a deserted spot and stretched his arm toward the sky.

Rumble!

The ground shook violently, and cracks once again began to spiderweb across the sky.

A passage connecting one dimension to another.

This was an ability he had gained by consuming the final guardian with his Predation ability.

Fwaaash!

The fractured sky flashed once, and a Gate of clear, blue light—distinctly different from the one the guardian had opened—materialized.

An identical Gate had appeared in the world on the other side, and Il-hyeon could feel it clearly.

He could see them.

He could clearly see their confusion at the sight of a Gate opening *into* their world, a reverse of the usual structure they had never witnessed before.

The creator of a Gate in another dimension could see the beings on the other side through it as a medium.

It was time to repay them in kind.

Fwoooosh!

Fierce flames erupted around Il-hyeon.

A massive conflagration, using the guardian’s corpse as kindling, was swallowing its surroundings whole.

The flames then gathered, taking the form of a giant, flowing hound.

This was a true ‘monster’ that would devour an entire dimension and willingly be destroyed along with it.

“I’m counting on you.”

Rumble!

The flame that would reduce everything to ash stretched toward the sky, passed through the massive crack, and vanished into the Gate.

Once the flame was out of sight and he confirmed it had arrived in the other dimension, Il-hyeon closed the Gate.

The crack that had scarred the sky disappeared, and Il-hyeon bent over for a moment to catch his breath.

Having absorbed the last guardian’s power, Il-hyeon had become strong enough to summon one incredible being after another.

But the creature he had just summoned was on a level beyond even that.

It was always better to be thorough with this kind of work, so he had pushed himself, pouring in more power than he should have.

“…It’s really over.”

A voice suddenly spoke.

Il-hyeon turned his head to see Lee Soo-yeon, who had approached him at some point.

Her head was bandaged and she was covered in blood, but the faint twist of her lips was unmistakably a smile.

“It is.”

Il-hyeon nodded meaningfully.

The end.

There would be no more monsters appearing in the world, no more Gates or giant secret organizations.

The end of Awakened risking their lives on the front lines also meant an end to innocent sacrifices.

“Honestly… it doesn’t feel real.”

“Right? Me neither. It was similar after we finished the hectic third cycle, but this feeling is on a whole other level.”

“But it’s not the end.”

Il-hyeon said, leaning on his knees for support.

He then tried to push himself up to deal with the mountain of tasks that lay ahead.

But Soo-yeon, standing nearby, swiftly pulled him back.

Il-hyeon tumbled backward, landing flat on his back. He looked up at her with a bewildered expression.

“What was that for…?”

“It’s obvious you’re exhausted. Just lie down for now.”

Lee Soo-yeon said, looking down at him.

There was no need to ask if he was okay; even to her, it was clear that Il-hyeon was struggling just to stand.

But Il-hyeon looked troubled by her suggestion.

“There are still so many problems to deal with. We don’t have time for this…”

Il-hyeon’s mind was still full of work, not rest.

Although the guardians and monsters were dealt with, not everything was over.

The first thing that came to mind was the matter of dealing with the captured remnants of Eclipse.

When he had discussed it with his teammates before the main battle, the consensus was that they should, of course, be put down.

High-ranking Awakened who had turned to crime were an immense danger just by existing, and this group was unprecedentedly powerful.

With no proper facilities to imprison them, it was a logical conclusion.

But Il-hyeon was not going to kill them.

In the future he had seen with Peacemaker, research into refining the leftover core fragments from his absorption was nearing completion, led by Aegis’s head of research, Choi Eun-chae.

The material was indestructible unless his Predation ability was involved, making it possible to restrain or isolate even the strongest Awakened and keep them safely locked away.

Il-hyeon’s firm insistence that they should be made to pay for their crimes rather than be killed had set the course of action. Then there was also the issue of societal recovery.

The collapse of governments had caused social chaos, not to mention the economic structure was in shambles. It was a situation where even the Awakened had to roll up their sleeves and lend a hand.

And that wasn’t all.

He also had to resolve the issue of conflict between the Awakened and ordinary people, just as Baek Il-ho had warned.

With the battlefields where the Awakened could be active gone, Il-hyeon planned to be at the forefront, maintaining the balance to prevent potential conflicts.

He would ensure that the Awakened were not sacrificed to corrupt powers, and that no rogue Awakened could oppress people with their strength.

There was a mountain of things to do, and the thought that he needed to start tackling at least one of them as soon as possible made Il-hyeon try to push himself up from where he had fallen.

“But still.”

Thump!

Lee Soo-yeon grabbed his shoulders with both hands and pressed him down.

Drained of strength, Il-hyeon couldn’t move a muscle and flopped back onto the ground again.

“Ugh…!”

“It’s okay to rest for a bit, right? It’s been a non-stop rush to get here. You did well.”

Lee Soo-yeon said with a shrug.

The mouse on Il-hyeon’s chest squeaked in agreement, nodding its head.

Lying on his back, he turned his head slightly and saw his teammates in the distance, looking for him.

“Haa, I suppose so.”

Il-hyeon slowly closed his eyes and let the tension drain from his body.

Honestly, at this moment, he didn’t care about any of it.

All he wanted was to close his eyes and sleep to his heart’s content.

He figured anyone would grant him this small indulgence.

After all, he had just saved the world.

– The End