Chapter 181: The Gate
A massive gate came into view.
A gate that seemed to be made of pure gold, engraved with all manner of splendid decorations and patterns.
It looked exactly the same as the one I had seen in the dream after clearing the second trial.
There was something about the gate that overwhelmed a person just by looking at it.
The turmoil in my chest refused to subside.
It felt as though I were forcibly squeezing my heart as it pounded hard enough to burst.
I felt strangely stifled, yet I couldn’t quite understand why.
Just then, an unfamiliar voice rang out.
“You finally made it. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting. I never imagined you’d use the trial of the Gate as nothing more than a training ground.”
When I turned my head, I saw a familiar figure.
I had never actually seen him in person, but anyone attending the Academy saw his face practically every day.
Traces of him remained all throughout the Academy.
“Baek Hyun-joong.”
“Long time no see. But you don’t look as happy to see me as I expected?”
“…….”
I fell silent at those words.
My feelings were complicated.
This was undoubtedly the moment I had waited so long for, yet I couldn’t bring myself to speak.
I had far too many questions, but I couldn’t organize any of them in my head.
Then I heard the voices of the others beside me.
“W-Wow…… Hero Baek Hyun-joong? Am I dreaming right now?”
Park Siwoo and the others practically exploded with excitement at the sight of the hero of heroes, a hero who had accumulated legendary achievements.
Although they barely managed to suppress their surging excitement, their gazes toward him burned intensely.
Baek Hyun-joong smiled when he saw Park Siwoo and the others.
“Child of the Star, Sword, Holy Grail. Bringing all of these children with you was the right choice. It must have been the best option available to you.”
“The best option?”
At first glance, his words seemed to praise my efforts, but they sounded far too meaningful for that alone.
“You must have a lot you want to ask. You’re quieter than I expected. Weren’t you originally a different kind of character?”
“You speak as though you’ve been watching me for a long time.”
“I’m your fan. I’ve been watching every fate you’ve changed until now.”
With those words, Baek Hyun-joong slowly began walking.
Standing before the Gate, he extended his hand.
Immediately, the golden Gate radiated light.
Park Siwoo and the others stared with their mouths hanging open.
Countless screens densely filled the space around the Gate.
It was as though CCTV cameras had been installed all across the world.
Yet the scenery shown on those screens was far too diverse for that.
Some displayed medieval landscapes, while others showed Eastern-style buildings, and still others depicted scenery that could never be seen on Earth.
A land of death seething below and the Heavens overflowing with clouds and light.
“Those are…….”
“That’s right. They’re the countless dimensions connected to the Gate.”
When he extended his hand toward one of them,
one screen drew closer.
It showed the Academy.
Park Siwoo and the others stiffened at the sight.
I could see the Protective Barrier destroyed by the Leader of Pandemonium and the heroes who had stepped forward to stop him, but the situation did not look good.
“We don’t have much time. The flow of time here differs from reality, but we still can’t afford to waste any.”
He was right.
I had many questions, but there was no time to spare.
So I asked the most important one first.
“Please tell me how to prevent the revival of the End.”
Baek Hyun-joong answered my question immediately.
“The revival of the End cannot be prevented.”
“……What?”
The answer was so completely unexpected that I was momentarily speechless.
Was he serious?
His casual demeanor briefly made me wonder whether he was joking.
But there was no trace of humor in his eyes.
He firmly reiterated what he had said.
“The revival of the End is the result of causality accumulated over thousands of years. And you’re entangled at its very center. The fates you’ve changed until now are remarkable, but you cannot prevent the revival of the End.”
Causality? Fate?
None of it made any sense to me.
“Explain it so I can understand. I didn’t come all the way here just to listen to nonsense I can’t even comprehend.”
Flames surged from deep within my chest.
I wanted to surrender myself to my anger right then and there, but I suppressed it.
There were still things I needed to hear from him.
“To answer your question, I have to tell you about ancient history. Everything began with the discovery of the ‘Gate.’”
Baek Hyun-joong began his story as though he were reading a fairy tale.
The images displayed by the Gate changed.
“Since primordial times, demons have been conquerors and destroyers. Angels, their archenemies, maintained the balance of the universe. Then, one day, the demons discovered a planet.”
A blue planet appeared beyond the screen.
Earth.
A planet where the Gate existed, an intersection leading to countless dimensions.
The very existence of the Gate was enough to destroy the balance between demons and angels.
“The demons made no attempt to hide their ambitions. They immediately invaded Earth to seize the Gate.”
The blue planet was stained with blood.
I saw the scenes I had witnessed in my dreams.
A horrific battlefield where angels and demons fought one another.
“The war between the angels and demons over control of the Gate. That was the first Great War to occur on Earth.”
The screen soon zoomed in on the center of the demon forces.
There stood a demon I had never seen before, yet somehow found familiar.
A red dragon with seven heads, as though destruction itself had taken form.
The End.
“The leader of the demons was a demon called the End. He freely wielded hundreds of Authorities and reigned at the pinnacle of all evil. His power was so overwhelming that even the angels could do nothing against him.”
“But wasn’t the End eventually sealed? By the angels.”
“That’s right. But they were only able to stop the End thanks to the sacrifice of a single angel.”
Brilliant radiance filled the screen.
The light was so bright that I couldn’t even see the angel himself.
“His name was Metatron. The greatest angel and the Archangel who led all angels. He burned away his own life to seal the End, while simultaneously destroying the Gate that had caused the entire conflict.”
With a deafening explosion, the massive Gate collapsed.
Its fragments scattered throughout the world.
“So what does that have to do with being unable to prevent the End’s revival? If the Gate was destroyed in the first place, shouldn’t that have solved everything?”
“I told you. This is causality that has continued for thousands of years. Even as he was being sealed, the End made preparations for his own revival.”
At that moment, something flashed through my mind.
The Corrosion Rate had risen drastically when I killed Viden with my own hands in the past.
“Don’t tell me……?”
“It’s exactly what you’re thinking. Right before he died, he scattered his own blood and flesh throughout the world. Those fragments seeped into the humans of Earth, and Pandemonium gathered them to increase its power. It’s also why they caused all sorts of problems through human sacrifices.”
“Then the High-ranking Executives and Leader of Pandemonium are?”
“They’re his Avatars and incarnations who absorbed the flesh and blood of the End.”
Now I understood.
Why the Devil Knight grew stronger whenever I killed the High-ranking Executives in the game.
Why the Corrosion Rate had once risen by as much as 20% at once.
Even so, there was still something I couldn’t understand.
“Then why don’t they kill themselves? If they did that, wouldn’t they be able to revive the End immediately?”
“Because a revival achieved that way couldn’t be called a complete revival. No matter how many fragments he scattered across Earth, they ultimately remain nothing more than pieces of him. So would the End revived through those fragments possess his full power? Of course not. He’d fall far short of his original strength.”
At that moment, an image flashed through my mind.
The Normal Ending I had seen countless times in my previous life.
What Baek Hyun-joong had told me was directly connected to the route leading to the Normal Ending in <Become a Hero>.
The End revived after the High-ranking Executives were killed.
He then led the Demonic Humans in an assault on the Academy.
In the Great War that followed, the Player fought the End alongside his companions and emerged victorious.
“Then, if a Demonic Human from Pandemonium or the End reaches the Gate, does something change?”
“Hell is the kingdom created by the End, and all demons are both his subjects and his children. In other words, if he reaches Hell, not only this world but other dimensions will be endangered as well.”
Before I knew it, a heavy silence had descended around us.
Park Siwoo and the others, who had been listening with me, alternated their gazes between Baek Hyun-joong and me, looking as though they had no idea what to do.
How was I supposed to describe what I felt right now?
In truth, I had considered that things might turn out this way.
That perhaps Baek Hyun-joong wouldn’t have a way to stop the End.
That was why I had prepared for it as well.
During the first trial, I had pushed the others to increase their combat strength even if it meant forcing them beyond their limits, and I had asked Master Gu Ryun to create endgame equipment for us.
As though that weren’t enough, I had even requested help from Top-ranking Heroes, including the Sword Emperor.
“I’m not denying everything you’ve done. You’ve changed the fates of countless people.”
He was right.
With our current strength, even if the End revived incompletely, everyone would probably survive.
And that would be the Happy Ending I had desperately wanted ever since my previous life.
But then, what was this feeling?
It felt as though a massive hole had been torn through my chest.
I had been certain I could sacrifice myself for them.
From the moment I possessed this world, I had tried to think of my life as nothing more than a bonus.
Yet one corner of my chest ached unbearably.
I hated the thought that I wouldn’t exist in their Happy Ending.
All the resentment I had suppressed until now burst forth.
I slowly raised my lowered head.
“If this is all you were going to tell me, why did you call me here? It would’ve been better if you’d just let me remain ignorant.”
“…….”
“Why did it have to be me? Out of all the people in the world, why! Why the hell did it have to be me?!”
All the resentment I had suppressed until now burst forth.
I had sworn that if a situation like this ever came, I would accept it calmly, but things didn’t go the way I had imagined.
If anything, I refused to accept it.
This wasn’t the Happy Ending I wanted.
Then Baek Hyun-joong asked me a question.
“How do you think Archangel Metatron sealed the End?”
“How the hell should I know?”
I didn’t want to hear any more about angels, demons, the End, or anything else.
The future awaiting me was already despairing enough.
“It’s impossible for a human body to contain a King of the Demons like the End.”
“You’ve been saying things I can’t understand for a while now. What exactly are you trying to say?”
Irritated, I pressed him for an answer.
“You asked me, didn’t you? Why it had to be you. Out of all those countless people.”
Warm light began to flow from Baek Hyun-joong.
I stared at him, sensing something strangely familiar in that power.
Baek Hyun-joong’s eyes blazed with brilliant light.
Pure-white feathers fluttered down and settled upon the floor.
Enormous wings spread out and enveloped Baek Hyun-joong and me.
“The choice Metatron made to seal the End was to become the prison and cage that would confine the End within himself.”
“Wait, what?”
Unable to comprehend his words, I doubted my ears once again.
It was even more shocking than hearing that there was no way to prevent the End’s revival.
Suddenly, I remembered the skill I possessed, 【Lamb】.
The broken skill that served as the medium sealing the End while also allowing me to gain power through transactions with demons.
In other words, the true identity of 【Lamb】 was none other than the power of Metatron, who had sacrificed himself.