Crackling, booming sounds!
The time that had already stopped began to collapse.
It crumbled and scattered because those who should not have existed in this place forcibly tore through and crossed over.
Space was stained black, and the halted time gradually melted away.
Within it, Aslan faced what might have been a failure before him, revealed at last.
Those who, having spent more time in Geladridion than Aslan, sought to break at the end but could not be broken—only bent—and became failures.
Their appearances seemed to embody their very failures.
Aslan, who shattered Akei’s chest with a heart-piercing strike, now possessed a body similar to the mechanical scales of the Dragon King he wore.
To anyone who saw, it was clearly the symbol of a predator.
At first glance, it resembled a knight’s full plate armor, but upon closer inspection, it was different.
Where joints should have been, there were mechanical motors or pumps, and where muscles should have been, strange tubes filled the space.
They formed muscle-like structures, and steam-like energy surged throughout the body.
This failure, wrapped in an old captain’s cloak, with a helmet-like head, stood before Aslan.
Aslan met his gaze.
Through the slits, a teal light shone, and Aslan faced the flickering mechanical eyes.
The lens tightened, focusing on Aslan.
Through the lens that replaced his eye, Aslan could read his history.
He was a failure.
Having lost his comrades, suffered defeat, and even lost his alliances,
he eventually believed compromise was necessary for victory.
Under the shadow of the Evil Deity, instead of rallying collapsing alliances, he chose excess mana, health, and luck.
Thus, he accepted the predator.
His understanding of insufficient technology was resolved through the AI of the predator.
Ideas for modifying his body came from countless media experienced as a modern human.
What followed was predictable.
He fought.
Inheriting the rank of captain, he battled against the evil deities while maintaining his self.
With each fight, he devoured the evil deities, growing larger.
Repeatedly enhancing his body to its limits, he became war itself.
Leading his grotesque form into the universe,
he killed all the evil deities and conquered the entire cosmos.
That’s how he became Aslan.
The name Lee Hyun-woo no longer held any meaning.
The operation of the AI that had endured for billions of years ceased, and he truly became the last captain.
He was here to cover up his mistakes and failures and turn the impossible into the possible.
Breaking through time, he ascended to reach this point.
The others were the same.
Though they may have lost their humanity completely, they appeared here with purpose.
They weren’t summoned by the Voracious Eater.
Someone, while being consumed by the Abyss, still clung to their nature to achieve a goal.
Another, by forcibly swallowing the Supreme Divinity, became an evil deity against their will, striving to reach an endpoint.
Even as their selves blurred,
their purposes disappeared,
and their memories were tainted,
their natures remained unchanged.
They were here for a restart.
Nothing less than to take Aslan’s place.
Only one would seize the opportunity.
Aslan met their gazes.
He saw the last captain whose body was entirely replaced by machines.
He saw the Supreme Divinity who had compressed divine power into his flesh, achieving the limit of physical capability.
Finally, he saw the remnants of someone once known as Lee Hyun-woo and Aslan, writhing inside a suit of armor darkened beyond recognition.
Since their desires were the same, they moved without a word.
The greatsword, blackened like space, tilted.
A blade resembling flames was raised high.
From the elbow of the mechanized arm, a sword suddenly sprang forth.
Lastly, Aslan reached for his waist and drew the Sword of the Watcher.
“Purity.”
Just as he spoke, something shot out of the space darkened by shadows.
The sword, blazing white, engulfed the bronze-colored sword and revealed itself just as a black abyss was hurled.
But an adversarial evil deity from another world intervened.
Seeing its unyielding strength, Aslan barely managed to block it with Purity.
A dome-shaped shockwave erupted, scattering the already crumbling world in all directions.
What flew toward them resembled a battering ram.
No, it was literally a battering ram crafted from the Abyss, as if thrown by a giant.
Though deflected by Purity, the darkness spread further, signaling that it wasn’t the end.
Not the cosmic darkness, but a sticky, shadowy gloom.
Soon, soldiers and weapons forged from the Abyss poured down like a tidal wave.
Raindrops of death.
An assault so powerful that any mighty empire would fall in the blink of an eye if unleashed against ordinary humans.
Amidst it, the two transcendent beings moved without hesitation.
With a guttural growl, Aslan, now a god, firmly grasped victory.
The divinity imbued in his sword was familiar.
“Splitting the Moon?”
As Aslan’s gaze met the greatsword, it tilted.
Dropping to one knee and lowering his stance, he swung without warning.
The trajectory escaped from behind his waist and stretched forward, elongating strangely.
A sword path over 20 meters long.
In an instant, the abyss rushing toward the Supreme Divinity was severed and scattered.
KAAAAAAAWWWWWW!
Simultaneously, the Predator extended its hand.
The right arm transformed, flipped, and something resembling a cannon emerged from within.
The embedded ion cannon.
Its target: the Supreme Divinity and the Abyss.
GROOOOOOOWWLLLLL, KWAHHHHHHHAAAAAAA!
The projectile ignited as it launched.
A turquoise lightning bolt raced straight ahead, sparks flying wherever it passed.
The air, superheated by immense heat, swirled violently like a storm. Pushed back by the resulting shockwave, Aslan was momentarily stunned.
Normally, players from other timelines summoned by the Voracious Eater’s desperate patterns would be under the Voracious Eater’s control.
Therefore, whenever the Voracious Eater fell, the battle typically ended without needing to deal with the players.
Anticipating the worst-case scenario, Aslan had prepared a strategy with Lumel and Lewena to take down the Voracious Eater together.
However, now, a message floated before Aslan’s eyes, disregarding all his knowledge.
[Completed Main Quest]
[Defeated the Voracious Eater, Elf Hybrid Akei]
The Voracious Eater was already dead.
The elf hybrid lying on the ground, with a gaping hole in her chest, no longer moved.
Strangely, even as he watched, the corpse of the high priestess from another timeline continued to fight against the other Aslan who had appeared.
It was unusual.
He should have realized when the Voracious Eater’s chest was pierced—it wasn’t by the Voracious Eater’s intent.
Given the power these beings wielded and Aslan’s intuition, they were far beyond what the Voracious Eater could summon.
Moreover, Aslan saw the sand slowly replacing the collapsing time.
In the blackened world, a certain landscape was gradually encroaching.
Vast plains.
More accurately, a desert that was once a plain.
The sinking sand shimmered with a purplish hue, and scattered across the desert were black crystalline objects.
It was an unknown location.
In this unknown place, despite searching, Aslan couldn’t find Lewena or Lumel nearby.
While uncertain, Aslan assumed only he and these failures had fallen into this space.
Lewena and Lumel must have been too far from where these beings had appeared.
Perhaps it was fortunate.
Once again, Aslan braced himself against the shockwave pounding his body, gritting his teeth.
Without the Dragon King transformation, enduring such impacts would have been difficult.
Certainly, it was far too powerful for Lumel and Lewena to withstand.
Suddenly, streaks of light decorated the night sky.
Blue beams and crimson sword edges clashed, interwoven with the Abyss that deepened the darkness.
Their combat prowess was evidently superior to Aslan’s.
Only then did Aslan realize how far their journeys had taken them.
They were evil deities.
Aslan himself, choosing to become an evil deity, considered them failures.
Powerful failures seeking to claim Aslan’s place.
The shockwaves made the desert seem to flip, and swirling sands dyed the surroundings purple.
Each time the blue flashes of the ion cannon were blocked by the black greatsword, and the red greatsword carved into the earth to strike them, the Abyss-born Aslan collapsed but rose again as if nothing happened.
Sharp kicks met with counter-kicks, elbows collided with staffs.
Every clash of blades pushed them back with identical motions.
Even with the Dragon King scales, the thunderous roars deafened his ears.
The Aslan who had tamed the Predator also wielded a fiery red beam like a sword.
A fight no one dared interrupt.
Aslan clenched his lips, sensing an insurmountable gap in skill.
There was plenty of time left in the Dragon King transformation.
Yet, there was no guarantee he could survive jumping into that fray.
Their technical levels were equal.
How could he gain the upper hand? Aslan glared at them, pondering.
It wasn’t clear. He couldn’t figure out where or how to break through.
Superior beings, yet similar to himself.
Aslan had no way to win against such entities.
KAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
A flash of light soared from the ground to the sky.
The trace of the ion cannon fired by the Predator, heating the ground and bending, was evidence of the Supreme Divinity’s repulsion.
Flames shot from the ground to the heavens and slowly subsided, reddening the world and briefly lifting the darkness.
In the absence of the Abyss rushing to kill enemies,
Aslan saw a familiar face.
“…Number 13?”
A woman holding a staff, draped in a robe.
A mage with hair as pale blue as a clear sky.
Her image tinted by the rising pillar of fire stretching from the ground to the heavens.
The legendary Mage, Number 13.
Seeing the familiar face, Aslan opened his mouth in confusion.
“How is Number 13 here?”
But there was no one to answer his questions, and even as the wind blew off her hood, Number 13 looked at Aslan.
Her dragon-like slit eyes captured Aslan.
For a moment, various emotions welled up in those eyes before quickly fading:
Regret, pain, sorrow, joy—all kinds of emotions.
In the end, she aimed her staff at Aslan with an expression of determination.
“—World!”
The words she uttered caused the world to bow. Space distorted, and the space between Aslan and Number 13 crumpled.
In an instant, the distance between Number 13 and Aslan shortened, and an overwhelming surge of mana erupted.
Mana powerful enough to make the three failures notice and turn their heads.
Even with the Dragon King transformation, Aslan had to defend against the attacks.
The ion cannon tilted toward Number 13, the Supreme Divinity gripped a spear drawn from nowhere, and the Abyss targeted her.
Number 13 countered these attacks by pointing her staff toward the horizon.
“Tip, Ahhh!”
With her words, Aslan’s vision tilted.
No, the world was tilting.
Aslan watched as Number 13 stretched out her staff, gripping his hand.
The world tilted and flowed around Aslan and Number 13.
The distance between the three failures rapidly increased.
Like a rock rolling down a steep mountain, Aslan felt as if he were tumbling.
The only difference was that when the fall ended, there was no reaction—only the two of them standing in the middle of the desert.
Aslan finally realized that Number 13 had saved him.
She had pulled him out of a fight with no clear way to win.
Aslan finally observed Number 13 up close, panting, and opened his mouth with many questions and gratitude.
How she got here, whether she had learned all the magic and arrived at the perfect moment, and even expressing his thanks.
His mouth was ready to speak, but before he could utter those words, Number 13 embraced him.
“Huh?”
Silently shedding tears, she hugged him, burying her face in Aslan’s chest.
And she wrapped her arms around Aslan’s waist, pressing her face against him.
Green’s pointed ears twitched, and her shoulders shook.
Still, she clung to Aslan as if trying to confirm his existence, ensuring he was real and not an illusion.
It was a baffling situation.
So much so that Aslan, flustered, checked his surroundings before trying to console her.
There, beneath the rising sun, he saw a corpse.
It was an entity he had encountered upon arriving in the South Empire.
Made of black crystals, yet containing human organs and flesh inside.
Something that could only be defeated by divine power.
A twisted version of future humanity, in common Geladridion terms.
A human from the future where Aslan had failed.
The moment Aslan saw this being, a foreboding intuition swept through his mind.
Aslan had arrived in the future.
A wretched future that no one would wish to see.
