Chapter 232. The Meaning of the Cataclysm Pt. 2

It was true; Lee Jun-Kyeong and Zeus definitely were different.

Unlike the others, they had been to Andlangr and the rapid growth they had experienced there was akin to a cheat code.

Of course, they had paid a fair price for that strength, but that was beside the point.

“You’re saying that Sponsors have no choice but to sponsor us little by little?” he asked.

Saeynkaed nodded. “That’s right. If an Incarnation is raised through excessive amounts of sponsorship, any incarnation that can’t contain that rapid level of power will explode.”

“Explode?”

“We just call it an explosion, they don’t actually blow up. They just rapidly lose their vitality and become monsters that have lost their sanity. Of course, nothing of the sort happens to the Sponsors.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong and Zeus immediately thought of the same thing.

“The monsters…”

Monsters had lost all vitality and reason. Lee Jun-Kyeong had thought they had been creatures from other dimensions all this time.

“You’re right. All of those things you call monsters were once Hunters. They are all broken Incarnations.”

If that really was the case, one hypothesis became certain to Lee Jun-Kyeong.

“Those who sponsored and provided sponsorship were Sponsors, and those who opened the gates and raided the world with monsters were also Sponsors.”

But if that was the case, those who were attacked and those who attacked existed at the will of the Sponsors.

“My thoughts are correct, right? All of this chaos is just the entertainment of the Sponsors?” Lee Jun-Kyeong said, sure that it was all just a game for the Sponsors, a type of entertainment created through the blood of the Incarnations.

“It’s right, but at the same time, it’s not.”

Saeynkaed’s answer was no different than confirming that it was, in fact, the Sponsors who had opened the gates.

However, Lee Jun-Kyeong wondered what the dragon meant by that.

“All of this chaos, the invasion of the dimensions, has happened because of a single reason.”

Finally, they could hear the reason behind all of this tragedy.

Saeynkaed swallowed and spoke.

Crackle.

However, at that moment, an electric current started to run through her body. It was a current that didn’t belong to Zeus.

It was similar to the phenomenon that a gate would emit when it appears.

Saeynkaed didn’t seem to have completely escaped the bondage of the system as the dragon frowned as if she was in pain.

Swish!

However, a surge of mana swept over her as if a bucket of water had been splashed over. The dragon had finally completely freed herself from the shackles of the system. Slowly managing the pain, Saeynkaed continued, “The survival of the Sponsors.”

“The Survival?”

“And, their resurrection.”

It was at that moment that the pieces all fit.

***

In the beginning, there was a dimension.

It was a single world where numerous beings of all sorts of races were born and raised.[1]

As it was the only dimension, the inhabitants of the world were special.

Since countless forms of auras, energies, and power hadn’t been spread through existence yet, all of it was for their taking, and all of which was seized and monopolized by these beings.

They competed with each other, growing in strength and power.

–There was nothing left for them.

When they finally took control over the entire dimension, eventually, their purpose disappeared.

There was no reason for them to become stronger, and no land for them to conquer.

Though things may have been different if they didn’t have such enormous power, these beings, who had the power to shake the very heavens and earth, found themselves having lost their purpose, falling into despair.

Thus, like that,

–They started killing among themselves.

There was no place for them to unleash their great power. Nothing for them that they had to do. So, they, who needed neither food nor sleep, began to slaughter each other. However, that, too, also had an end.

–They were unkillable.

Those who had already gained the power of a world couldn’t die. It was just a cycle of destruction and resurrection. As they crusaded against one another, the dimension began to crumble.

Then, one of them asked a question.

–For what reason do we have to kill each other?

–No, let’s kill the dimension itself.

–Let’s make it disappear.

Feeling the gravity of their neverending lifespan, they decided to destroy the place they called home, destroying the only dimension that existed. They had the power to do so, and eventually, what they desired had come to fruition.

The ground on which they tread disappeared. The air that they breathed dissipated. The dimension itself collapsed.

–However, even after all of that, they couldn’t die.

They weren’t just immortals, they were immortal.[2]

They became souls that floated amidst the pieces of the broken dimension, unable to do anything because they had lost their physical bodies. Time continued to pass for them as their minds grew increasingly unstable, until one day, a change occurred.

In the center of the broken and shattered dimension, a heaven-shattering explosion expanded forth from the empty world where nothing existed.

It was an explosion caused by the power contained in the souls of the absolute beings that floated around in the empty space as the countless forces that had condensed in one dimension expanded outward in all directions.

–The world expanded everywhere.

Then, from there, countless dimensions were born.

Dozens, hundreds—no, there were so many different dimensions that it was no longer possible to count them all.

The souls of the absolute beings didn’t pay any attention to them at first, assuming that those unlucky bastards that were waiting to be born would eventually end up the same as they had.

However, that assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. The divided powers neither destroyed the dimensions they fell into nor did they fall into their own madness, rather keeping a balance among themselves and developing the world.

To the absolute beings, those newly created creatures may have been insignificant and feeble insects, but there was a strange order to them. The souls of the absolute beings watched over them as they floated around through the countless dimensions, unable to do anything after having lost their bodies.

However, as they traveled, they began to have aspirations again.

–I want to live.

–I want to breathe again.

Seeing the living creatures, they lusted after them.

They desired their flesh and to have that flesh and blood once more and really live again. They wanted to be given another chance to exist. Thus, some of the absolute beings began to interfere with the dimensions.

If they didn’t have bodies, they would make some. However, no matter how absolute their power, that was the one thing that was beyond them. They couldn’t create bodies for themselves.

–That was a power only reserved for the origin of the beginning.

The origin of the beginning was the unique power that only existed in the first dimension, and it was the power that maintained genesis.

It was what the absolute beings called the power of the source.

Unless they could obtain some of that origin power that no one could create, they wouldn’t be able to create a body for themselves. Unfortunately for them, the powers of the source had disappeared somewhere alongside the explosion of the dimension.

Although it made sense that the absolute beings wanted to find that power, their desire to do so was even greater than one could have imagined. Eventually, a different idea was suggested by one of the absolute beings.

–How about handling both issues at the same time?

There was a very simple answer to their desires, to find the powers of the source while also obtaining a body.

–Let’s take it away from them.

They had existed all this way in that manner—stealing, killing, and destroying. So, they just decided to continue doing what they were good at.

An innumerable number of bodies were already spread across all of the dimensions. It would be enough for them to just take those away. The absolute beings eventually decided on a dimension and gathered there, wanting to build their world once again.

Finally, they all stretched out their hands, and soon, the fire was lit.

Flicker.

They had assumed that it would obviously all be theirs for the taking, but the results were nowhere near what they had taken for granted. They had too arrogantly assumed that the flesh before them would be theirs to take, but the spread of the flames was too strong, and everything burned to ashes.

The creatures from the other dimensions weren’t enough.

–They couldn’t accept them.

The souls of the absolute beings, who possessed limitless power, were too difficult for the flesh of the living beings to contain. Instead, an entire dimension was incinerated in their attempt.

In the midst of that chaos, even some of the souls of the absolute beings were incinerated as well. In the midst of those neverending flames, the creatures that had received even a little bit of the soul and power of the absolute beings were distorted.

–And monsters were born.

They had lost their souls and their very selves, becoming monsters with powers. The absolute beings, in turn, left the burning dimension behind and agonized over their failure.

–Are we really just doomed to never don flesh and blood again?

They had achieved everything they had aspired to. The feeling of failure was nearly impossible for them to accept as they were those who had achieved even the destruction of their own dimension. The absolute beings became worried over their own failures and started to wander through the other dimensions.

–Let us go find creatures that will accept us.

They wanted to find even stronger flesh—no, a flesh that could handle the burden of their souls. That would be enough for them. Numerous dimensions were sacrificed, collapsing under the influence of the absolute beings.

–Those dimensions had become destroyed worlds where monsters infested the lands.

What the absolute beings created and left behind were Hells. Countless years passed.

Every dimension they would come across would collapse and become its own unique Hell, as still, the absolute beings had failed in obtaining even a single physical body.

In that time, some of the despairing absolute beings had even found the sweet embrace of death that they had so desperately craved. Caught up in the despair and destruction that they had created, these absolute beings had been abandoned alongside the dimensions that the others had left behind.

Even though those absolute beings had wanted death, the others were different.

–That’s not the ending we wanted.

Rather, the surviving absolute beings began to crave a flesh of their own even more. The abandoned absolute beings and the dimensions that had swept away with them fused into each other, becoming something uniquely different.

–They became one and became the Andlangr.

On the other hand, the remaining absolute beings no longer wanted to feel the sting of failure.

One of them then spoke.

–If no one is able to contain the burden…

They would just make a creature that could.

The absolute beings were beings that were only just souls. Although they could influence the world, the influence they could exert wasn’t enough to meet their wishes. Thus, they decided to go a different route.

–They looked back on the path of devastation they had walked.

They went back toward the collapsed dimensions, the monsters they had created, and Andlangr. They had made up their minds to use the things that they had created.

Gathering up the Hells, they began to travel through the dimensions once more. That was the start of it all.

–The start of the Sponsorship.

The plan to raise the living creatures and eventually take over their bodies had begun, and it was the beginning of the nightmare that would envelop them all.

***

"This…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong stumbled.

Saeynkaed had used a method of transferring her memories rather than verbally informing them.

All of the information that she had obtained during the countless years she had spent tied to the system was spread out before the two Hunters, as the dragon gave it all over to Lee Jun-Kyeong and Zeus. It was a method that she couldn’t have done if she hadn’t given them her true name and if they didn’t trust her.

“You’re saying that’s the truth?”

The truth that Saeynkaed had shown them, the truth that the humans…

“That we’re just cattle…”

What the Sponsors were doing, it wasn’t like a game. It wasn’t some sort of entertainment.

As Saeynkaed had said, the Sponsors had done this dance over and over again with a desperate heart. In order to regain their desires and bodies, they were creating Hunters like raising cattle.

Each Hunter would grow little by little through Sponsorship, and their goal was to grow the abilities of the Hunters until they were strong enough to accept the power of the Sponsors.

“Then the reason for supporting so many Hunters at the same time would be…hoping to catch one if they cast a wide enough net, right?”

The Sponsors were absolute beings. Their number of incarnations was largely based on the reasoning they believed in. Each of the absolute beings had a different disposition.

Some just wanted to win the metaphorical lottery by sponsoring as many people as they could at once, while others wanted to reduce the probability of failure by concentrating on a small number of incarnations.

Some of them even wanted to focus on just a single person.

Those who had forced their incarnation through that Hell or only supported one person—they weren’t some special sort of Sponsors.

They were just the same as the rest, only choosing a way forward to reach their desire.

That meant one thing.

“The ones that are special are us,” Zeus said to Lee Jun-Kyeong.

They were those who had passed the Sponsors’ test and were the best of the Sponsors’ livestock.

“The truth is a little different. Only those who are qualified to handle it can undergo the hell of Andlangr,” Saeynkaed said, correcting Zeus.

“Moreover, there are a lot fewer absolute beings than you would expect that are the masters of an Andlangr. Moreover, Andlangr isn’t something that just anyone can enter. Only those with enough potential can enter Andlangr.”

“Either way, that just means we’re just the good ones out of all the livestock candidates, anyway,” Zeus said, grinding his teeth.

“Then what about the system?” Lee Jun-Kyeong said to Saeynkaed with a somewhat blank expression. “What about those like you, the Rulers?”

Lee Jun-Kyeong already had some guesses, but he wanted to make sure he knew the exact facts.

“The system is a management system created by the will of the absolute beings. It is a power that can efficiently manage the incarnations and fulfill the will of the absolute beings.”

It had all been because of the absolute beings. They had done all of this chaos just because they were able to because they had wanted to create some sort of great incarnation just so they could use their bodies.

“What an efficient livestock management system…” Lee Jun-Kyeong said self-deprecatingly.

“And, as for us Rulers…”

Before Saeynkaed was able to finish, Zeus finished for her.

“You must have been the ones who had been able to grow until the final stage for becoming the bodies of the Sponsors. There just must have been some reason you weren’t able to accept their power. It was just that because it was too wasteful to throw you away, so they’re using you to raise the other livestock, right?”

Zeus had the same thoughts as Lee Jun-Kyeong, and as expected, Saeynkaed nodded as she responded in agreement.

“That is correct.”

“The situation of those you call the Rulers, our situation, is worse than that of the fate that befalls you all. We’ve just been relegated to puppets used to train you… We used to be incarnations just like you. We were those that had wanted to survive and struggle to the very end and protect our dimensions.”

“I mean it sounds noble and all, but it’s not like every one of you was like that. There had to have been some of you who had wanted to become absolute beings as well and chose to help their Sponsors even though they had uncovered their true intentions.”

People like The King of Alfheimr, Elfame…

Saeynkaed was silent, and both of them understood her silence to be an affirmation. Moreover, both of them understood that the very Rulers they hated were pitiful beings with no control over their very existence. Thus, it was time for them to bring the conversation back to the main point.

“This is the most important question,” Zeus said.

“What are the powers of the source, and how did you…”

“How did I get free of the system?”

She had found a way out. A way out that could turn this entire chessboard upside down. There was also one last question as well.

“Also, then, what is the cataclysm?”

They had gotten enough basic information needed to piece it all together, so neither Zeus nor Lee Jun-Kyeong cared anymore about the Sponsors’ sordid history.

No, now it was time for them to discuss what was most important.

“Answer us,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said.

1. Note, the Korean word for world 세상 doesn’t mean the physical planet but refers to the metaphysical idea of a place of existence, so in the case of the dimension, calling it a “world” means a place to exist and live in, not necessarily a single planet. ☜

2. There is a distinction between the concept of immortality and what people call immortal in East Asian culture. Think immortals as people who won’t die if nothing happens to them (like some of our Mc’s in Wuxia and Murim books could theoretically never die if you don’t kill them) and true immortality as someone who just can’t die. ☜