Chapter 105
Thousands of years ago.
Belkinus knelt with his head lowered and pleaded with the Primordial God.
...Please stop here.
Your child begs you.
This fight is reckless.
The other Constellations are already making suspicious moves.
At this rate, you'll be in danger.
So please....
What the Primordial God was trying to change was reckless.
He wanted to save the Players inside the Tower, who until then had been treated as little more than entertainment.
He helped them survive without having to climb.
And if they had no choice but to continue upward, he taught them ways to stay alive.
It was like opening every cage in a zoo because you wanted to protect the animals inside.
Their blades are already pointed at you.
Everyone is calling you a traitor.
Why are you so obsessed with changing a fate that cannot be changed...?!
Of course, there may have been Constellations who didn't oppose the Primordial God's actions.
Perhaps even quite a few.
But no one wanted to risk everything on something uncertain.
Especially not when their entertainment was at stake.
Everyone had already turned against him.
Yet the Primordial God's answer remained unchanged.
...If I stop now, they will continue repeating this cruelty forever.
This place, filled with nothing but slaughter, is no longer a paradise for the Constellations.
"Fate can be changed."
"I will change it."
Belkinus respected and followed him more than anyone.
His brothers and sisters were the same.
That was exactly why he suffered.
...You're telling me to betray Him?
Belkinus glared at the being that had secretly approached him.
How dare a mere ‘System’ speak such nonsense before me?
The System made him only one proposal.
If you wish to save all your brothers and sisters, choose.
Decide where you will stand.
At first, Belkinus naturally refused.
He was about to rise and leave.
Then the System spoke again.
The choice is yours.
But in the end, you will have to choose one way or another.
"That is the fate given to you."
And just as it had said...
Belkinus betrayed him.
On the day of the betrayal, he watched the Primordial God kneeling amid roaring flames, his entire body bound.
Belkinus told himself he'd made the right choice.
If he hadn't betrayed him, all of them would've died.
So...
It was the Primordial God who had been wrong.
I don't regret it.
This is simply the cycle of fate assigned to me.
"You failed."
The Primordial God was moments away from being sealed by his own retainers.
Yet he remained strangely composed.
Almost as if he'd known all of this would happen.
...Wait.
Before long, someone will appear who shatters that predetermined cycle.
Back in the present.
Belkinus's eyes were dyed black.
Through them, he watched one man slowly approaching.
Fwoooosh.
An enormous radiance of Divine Power spread outward.
With every step Suhyeok took, the light expanded.
The shadow soldiers touched by it simply vanished.
Slash!
And that wasn't all.
A black-haired woman possessing Rank stood beside him, protecting him as she relentlessly cut down the shadow soldiers.
Every nerve in Belkinus's body screamed at him to attack the being before him.
But...
Why was he even here?
"Keugh...."
Pain tore through his skull as though questions themselves were forbidden.
Right.
He remembered.
He had betrayed someone again.
All to escape this filthy cycle of fate.
BOOM! RUMBLE!
The attacks became fiercer.
With a single gesture from Belkinus, a wyvern as large as a dragon emerged and spewed black flames.
Crackle. Crackle.
The fire that never extinguished swept across the battlefield, consuming everything in its path.
At least...
That was what should've happened.
[Trait ‘Divine Protection (S)’ activates.]
[Attacks with a lower Divine Power value than the target are ignored.]
"..."
The man didn't stop.
He continued walking through the flames.
Straight toward Belkinus.
Why?
Then the Primordial God's final words suddenly resurfaced in Belkinus's mind.
Someone would appear.
Someone who would break the predetermined cycle.
Step.
Step.
Before long, Suhyeok stood directly in front of him.
He sheathed his sword.
Then grabbed Belkinus by the collar.
"I'm not dying here."
"If something tries to stop me from now on, I'll destroy it."
"This Tower."
"And the System that toyed with us."
"..."
[Duration of ‘Stat Reset Ticket’ has expired.]
[Stats return to normal.]
[The sacred light surrounding your body fades.]
The Divine Power surrounding Suhyeok disappeared.
Immediately, the shadow soldiers began closing in again.
[ H-Huff... huff... D-Dad! Watch out...!! ]
A spinning spear flew straight toward Suhyeok's neck.
At the very last instant...
It stopped.
Everything became silent.
All the shadow soldiers vanished.
Only Suhyeok and Belkinus remained.
[ A-Are you okay, nya?! ]
Belkinus's blackened eyes gradually cleared.
For the first time, he looked relieved.
A gentle smile appeared on his face.
"...I will watch."
"May you succeed in what you seek."
[‘Shadow Monarch Belkinus,’ retainer of the Primordial God, disappears.]
Suhyeok released his collar.
Belkinus slowly crumbled into dust and scattered on the wind.
[Trait Plunder successful.]
[Trait ‘Shadow Monarch (S)’ plundered.]
[You can subordinate targets you have killed.]
Suhyeok wondered whether he could subordinate Belkinus himself.
He couldn't.
Perhaps because Belkinus was already an existence whose soul had long since disappeared.
Only a mass of black energy remained where he'd vanished.
Suhyeok reached toward it.
The energy slowly seeped into his hand.
[Absorbing Death Energy.]
[Absorbing a portion of the target's Rank.]
[Level +10.]
The rise in his Rank was incomparable to before.
Previously, he'd only been able to wrap that power around his weapon.
Now he could release it outward.
It's probably similar in principle to telekinetically controlling objects.
Still too difficult to use properly for now.
Only then did Suhyeok look toward the chat.
Everyone was still stunned.
W-Wait... what the hell was that?
Who the hell would've thought he'd dump every stat point into one stat lolol
It's honestly a miracle he didn't die. With that much Divine Power, he was lucky his body didn't tear apart;;
