Chapter 214

The Assembly Leader, Jain’s resolve was firm.

After nodding to Taewoon, Jain immediately walked toward the Solvers of the Dawn Assembly who were gathered on one side of the Holy Sanctuary.

Throughout the walk back to the Assembly headquarters, Jain’s footsteps were heavy.

The weight of his transgression—betraying those who had trusted and followed him for decades and attempting to join hands with a hostile faction—pressed down upon his shoulders.

The murmuring subsided, and the Solvers’ gazes focused on Jain.

Their eyes were a mixture of betrayal, resentment, and a lingering sliver of hope that had not yet been erased.

“…I have nothing to say.”

Jain spoke. There were no excuses.

“I ran away. Exhausted by countless failures and terrified of the coming future, I abandoned you all and hid behind the sweet lie of respite. As the Assembly Leader, no—as a Solver, I committed an act that should never have been done.”

Jain slowly and deeply knelt.

The head of the Dawn Assembly, the pinnacle who had led numerous Solvers, bowed his head to the cold stone floor.

“…….”

Agitation rippled through the Solvers.

They were equally confused, but they had not expected an apology of this nature.

“You do not have to forgive me. I will not make the shameless request for you to recognize me as your leader once again. However…”

Jain lifted his head. His face was still exhausted, but his eyes burned more fiercely than ever before.

“There is still a path remaining. The final opportunity to complete the task we so desperately desired—the resurrection of the Dawn Sun God—has arrived.”

Jain raised his hand and pointed to Taewoon.

“It does not have to be me. Someone else may lead the Assembly temporarily. Please, lend your final strength to them. That is the only way to prove the meaning of our birth into this hellish world.”

Silence followed.

The Holy Sanctuary was filled with a suffocating stillness, and the Solvers looked at one another’s faces.

Among their expressions, where all sorts of emotions intersected, the first to speak was an elderly Solver with thinning white hair.

“…Rise, Assembly Leader.”

“Sir Gregory…”

“As you said, we were disappointed. We were enraged, believing you had trampled upon our pride. However…”

The old man approached Jain, leaning on his cane with a wrinkled hand.

“This is the kind of world we live in. Who among us would dare assert what is the right answer and what is the wrong one? It is not as if we cannot imagine the weight of the despair you felt.”

At the old man’s words, the other Solvers began to nod one by one. They, too, were exhausted.

In a fight with no end in sight, amidst the terror of the approaching apocalypse, they must have also wanted to run away countless times.

“What we wanted was not a perfect leader. We simply needed a comrade who would agonize with us and bleed with us until the very last moment.”

The old man grabbed Jain’s shoulder and pulled him up.

“Even if this path is wrong, even if we fail and meet a miserable end… we chose to move forward with one heart and be shattered, rather than die scattered. That is another form of salvation that our Assembly has pursued. Therefore, please do not abandon it any longer.”

“You are… correct.”

Jain bowed his waist once more. This time, it was not in apology, but as a sign of deep gratitude and respect.

“I swear. I will never turn my head away again. Until the moment my life ends, I will open the path at the very front of you all.”

The Assembly became one again.

The broken trust led to a new bond, and despair was sublimated into a solemn determination. Watching this scene, Taewoon quietly clenched his fist.

‘The preparations are complete.’

Now, all that remained was for each to fulfill their respective tasks before the End of Dawn arrived.

The site of the final battle was a massive cave located in the deepest part of the Apocalypse Society’s Holy Sanctuary.

Originally, it was a space the Cult Leader had prepared for his own respite, but it had now been transformed into a massive altar for a ritual that staked the fate of humanity.

The Dawn Assembly, united in one purpose, poured every resource they had accumulated over hundreds of years of history into that place without hesitation.

“This is truly incredible.”

“I didn’t expect it to be this much…”

Taewoon clicked his tongue at the sight unfolding before him.

Around the altar, gems and strange objects emitting multicolored lights were piled up like mountains. Each one was a legendary treasure possessing an extraordinary aura.

From relics of the ancient mythic era to the essences of nameless beasts, and mysterious materials that numerous Solvers had risked their lives to retrieve.

It was the crystallization of the history of humanity’s resistance against the apocalypse, and a mass of energy condensed from the longings of countless people.

And at the center, a familiar object lay.

‘That is…’

The Wish Jar.

It was the very object Taewoon had discovered in Ektis in the past, which had been recovered by Di Marte.

However, the jar now looked completely different from back then.

The old, crude surface had vanished, and it emitted a mysterious radiance as if it contained the entire universe.

“It is the Ritual Vessel that Di Marte risked his life to complete,” Jain said, approaching and following Taewoon’s gaze.

“That jar was originally an Evil Creature that fed on wicked desires, but through dozens of purifications and refinements, it was reborn as a vessel capable of holding only pure power. It should be sufficient as a cradle for the resurrection of the Sun God.”

Taewoon nodded.

Though Di Marte had perished without achieving his goal, the legacy he left behind was burning as the final spark of hope.

“Let us begin.”

With Taewoon’s signal, the ritual commenced.

Dozens of First-Class Solvers surrounded the altar and began chanting spells.

The magical power emanating from their bodies created a massive current that flowed into the altar.

Simultaneously, the Assembly’s technicians fed the prepared treasures into the jar one by one.

Whenever remnants containing intense energy were sucked into the jar, the sound of space twisting and being molded echoed.

It was high-level alchemy, forcibly mixing powers of different properties to create a new divinity that did not exist in the world.

One day, two days, three days.

The ritual continued without rest for several days and nights. Even as the Solvers collapsed from exhaustion, they did not stop the supply of magical power, and Jain also guarded the center of the ritual while coughing up blood.

Taewoon watched the entire process, bringing his condition to its absolute peak.

‘It’s becoming… massive.’

The energy writhing inside the jar was already larger and more intense than any Aberration Taewoon had ever dealt with.

The Nameless Head? The Tormented Goat?

No, they weren’t even comparable.

What was being born inside right now was something that far transcended them.

However.

“How can this be…”

“Is this truly still not enough…”

On the night of the fourth day, despite pouring in all their resources, the ritual began to show signs of collapse without reaching the stage of completion.

In that desperate moment, those who appeared to lend their strength were none other than the Ark Faction.

“In the end, was it our fate to end up like this…”

“Is that you, Lord Kenneth?”

“Do not stop the ritual. We will fill the empty parts of the contents.”

Brushing aside the bewildered Jain’s attempts to stop them, Kenneth and the Branch Leaders began to offer everything they had as sacrifices to the jar, adding their strength to maintain the ritual.

“What are you doing? If this happens, the voyage of the Ark…”

“We have all made a decision. If so, the significance of the Ark… no longer exists. For it was, quite literally, an object meant to turn one’s eyes away from the calamity.”

Finally, Kenneth took the Orb of Light from his chest, placed it into the jar, and personally rolled up his sleeves to resume the ritual.

Taewoon could tell. The Orb of Light that had just vanished in vain—that was the Ark, which contained all their longings.

“Will you be alright?”

“What of it? As I said, this was not my decision alone. In fact, you know it too, don’t you? That we were all nothing more than fugitives.”

That was it.

The reason why Taewoon had never felt attracted to the Ark Faction, despite it being a proposal worth considering.

It was because he knew that the Ark was not for the world, but merely an escape vessel, and that the number of people who could board it was limited.

“Now that the end is finally before our eyes, everyone has become able to look into their own true inner selves.”

“…….”

And finally, at dawn on the fifth day.

The entire underground cave shook violently, as if a massive earthquake had occurred.

A brilliant golden radiance soared from the altar, piercing through the dark ceiling and extending up to the surface, and within a light so intense one could not open their eyes, the contents of the jar began to integrate into a single, pure energy.

A heartbeat.

No, it was a sound like the pulsation of the earth and the breath of the stars.

Cracks began to form on the surface of the jar, and the light leaking through those gaps was erasing the surrounding space in white.

“…It is finished.”

Jain staggered toward Taewoon.

His face was pale as a sheet of paper, but a relieved smile hung on his lips.

“Everyone did their best. The process was excellent, and there were no mistakes. However… I cannot guarantee what the result will be.”

He grabbed Taewoon’s shoulder with a trembling hand.

“From here on, it is your turn. Please… protect our longings until the end.”

“…I promise.”

Taewoon slowly walked toward the altar.

With every step, an immense pressure crushed Taewoon’s entire body.

The intimidation of a newly born transcendent being—it was sublime, yet simultaneously stimulated an instinctive fear.

‘Pure… and intense.’

There was neither good nor evil within it. Only a crystallization of absolute power that could shake the world simply by the fact of its existence.

With a sharp shattering sound, the Wish Jar finally smashed to pieces.

And from within, a figure of dazzling light slowly raised its body.