Chapter 439: Star, Rollback (4)

“...Is that so?” Sean li Arcadia, the Heavenly Dragon Emperor, asked with a calm nod after coming to a realization. “I did think that things worked out in my favor quite often, but I guess this was the reason why.”

Sean had always thought that he was the lucky one among his siblings, who were on worse terms with him than his enemies. There had been a time he had coincidentally avoided drinking poisoned tea, and another in which he had discovered that a lover who affectionately approached him was an assassin. Such coincidental discoveries had often happened to him. All those coincidences made sense if ‘Taurus’ had helped Sean. Still, he was annoyed by the fact that he had been the pawn of ‘Taurus’, as what he hated the most was someone trying to control him.

Regardless, Chang-Sun was lost in the conversation between himself and Bel-Marduk.

“...I see. I understand your now,” Chang-Sun muttered to himself.

“You saw my ?” Bel-Marduk asked, his eyebrows twitching. “Does that mean you defeated me before?”

“Technically.”

“It’s strange.”

“What’s strange?”

“Your Divine Class... is quite weak for someone who defeated me,” Bel-Marduk said, narrowing his eyes in disbelief.

It was understandable, because Bel-Marduk had the most accurate assessment of Chang-Sun’s Divine Class. After all, his goal had always been to devour Chang-Sun and become an Emperor. It was strange that the level of Chang-Sun’s Divine Class was not even that of a Celestial King.

No, Bel-Marduk should not have been here in the first place if Chang-Sun had actually defeated him. In contrast to Celestials, who had copies of themselves in each Worldline, were unique. Other people could replace a , but their annihilation was their final and irreversible end.

Bel-Marduk’s mouth curled up in a half-smirk after he came to a realization. He said, “I see. You couldn’t do it.”

“No, I chose not to do it.”

“No, you couldn’t even think about eating me even though you and I both have . You always choose a more difficult path, even when an easier path is right in front of you.”

“It’s the opposite. I don’t have the slightest intention to take the same path as you people. A ? Why does becoming one matter?” Chang-Sun retorted with a scoff.

After knocking down , Chang-Sun had destroyed several times. Although he had sealed many of those Star Signs and was well aware that his Divine Class would rise if he ate all those Star Signs, he had never attempted Celestial Cannibalism.

In fact, Chang-Sun could have gathered all the and become a so as to exude that was bright enough to burn up an entire world. However, he had never done such a thing, because that represented crossing a line he could never, ever cross. If he did that, he would lose his humanity... breaking the promise he had made with Cha Ye-Eun.

“Ludicrous!” Bel-Marduk exclaimed, sneering at Chang-Sun’s determination. “Do you think you’ll be able to change anything with such a naive mindset?”

Chang-Sun could be certain now. He said quietly, “...You’ve gone through it too.”

“I’ve gone through it so many times that I’m sick of it,” Bel-Marduk said, his eyes tinged with madness. “How many fucking times do you think I’ve gone through a time loop? You wouldn’t be able to imagine it. One Worldline’s law of causality would be run so ragged that it couldn’t even maintain itself anymore. That wasn’t enough, so I went over to a different Worldline again. If that Worldline’s law of causality wore down to an irreparable point, I headed on to another Worldline...!”

With bloodshot eyes, Bel-Marduk gnashed his teeth. “After going through countless tries and ruining just as many Worldlines, I finally realized that I couldn’t accomplish anything with such a naive mindset.”

“Is that why you became a ?” Chang-Sun asked.

“I couldn’t do anything without becoming a !”

“Is that why you founded and ate Worldlines?”

“A person can’t do anything without power. Aren’t you feeling it yourself right now?” Bel-Marduk answered sarcastically.

Chang-Sun was rendered speechless, because he was also feeling the inescapable sorrow of the weak down to his bones.

“From the looks of it...I guess you aren’t desperate enough yet,” Bel-Marduk sneered.

Chang-Sun pursed his lips, getting a feeling that Bel-Marduk’s twisted personality was the result of an endless cycle of despair.

“I’m technically your senior in this time loop, so do you want me to tell you one thing, junior?” Bel-Marduk suddenly asked.

“...What is it?”

“It would be wise not to rely on the time loop too much. I don’t know who keeps the loop going, and the person is no doubt one of the most supreme beings capable of wielding omnipotence. But even they have a limit.”

“A limit?”

“Yeah, the more the Outer Celestial gets used to the time loop, the faster they’ll show up,” Bel-Marduk said with a nod.

A memory flashed through Chang-Sun’s mind, because he had recently noticed that same pattern. At the beginning of the time loop, he had been able to last over ten years before the Outer Celestial appeared, but he had trouble holding out over two years nowadays, no matter how hard he tried. That was why he had thought there was a new unexpected variable... but it seemed that guess was wrong.

“Who... in the world is that Outer Celestial? is right there, so how can the Outer Celestial have no problem invading Eros’ domain? Who is this guy the Outer Celestial made a contract with?” Chang-Sun asked.

“You want me to tell you the information I found out with utmost difficulty for free?” Bel-Marduk retorted with a half-smirk. Shrugging, he continued, “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. Sometimes knowledge only puts you in deeper despair.”

Chang-Sun narrowed his eyes. Who in the world was this Outer Celestial, for Bel-Marduk to talk like that?

“Ubbo-Sathla[1],” Bel-Marduk said as his smile deepened. “Do you know who that is?”

“...Somewhat,” Chang-Sun replied. In truth, he did not just know who Ubbo-Sathla was. He grunted, continuing, “The Outer Celestial is the Unbegotten Source?”

The Unbegotten Source, Foolish Amorphous Creator, Headless and Limbless Mass... Every Divine Name of Ubbo-Sathla was far from normal, but there was still the most famous one.

―The Source and End.

Ubbo-Sathla had the Divine Rank of creation, which was very unique for a being of Nyx. However, their creation was far from what ordinary people thought of creation. Ubbo-Sathla freely created bizarre monsters. When they disliked the monsters or felt annoyed, they destroyed and ate their creation. If they felt up to it again, they used the ingredients to make a different monster. It looked as if Ubbo-Sathla was repeating a very meaningless cycle, but many of their creations were quite famous.

‘Some of the Eight Gods of Disorder were created by Ubbo-Sathla,’

Chang-Sun recalled.

The Eight Gods of Disorder were the eight supreme Outer Celestials that reigned over Nyx. They were the close attendants and shadows of .

The ability to create some of those beings alone made Ubbo-Sathla an Outer Celestial among Outer Celestials. Ubbo-Sathla’s origin, , and Divine Class were all very formidable. However, the eternal passage of time ensured that almost no Outer Celestial remembered Ubbo-Sathla. If Chang-Sun had not read about the secrets of the Great Universe’s creation, he would not have known who Ubbo-Sathla was too.

‘...I can now understand why Sadalmelik picked Ubbo-Sathla out of all the other Outer Celestials,’

Chang-Sun thought.

There would be no better way to become an Outer Celestial than meeting an Outer Celestial that created Outer Celestials... Of course, Ubbo-Sathla had simply killed Sadalmelik and used her as an ingredient.

‘In any case... I don’t have what it takes to take down such a powerful Outer Celestial right now.’

Even if Ubbo-Sathla was not one of the Eight Gods of Disorder, it would be even trickier to deal with them than those eight gods in some ways, so the fact that Chang-Sun could not fight this battle alone remained the same. He could not contact Mephistopheles and did not know where Odin had vanished to, so he was in desperate need of someone else’s help.

From this conversation, it became even clearer to Chang-Sun that the person he needed right now was Bel-Marduk. He would never be able to find someone who had more experience with Ubbo-Sathla than Bel-Marduk. Even if he had chosen the path of corruption, Bel-Marduk lived on and continued to miss his Ithaca, so his grudge against Ubbo-Sathla still had to run deep.

“So is this all? I don’t think you called me out of the blue for these silly questions,” Bel-Marduk said, seeing through Chang-Sun’s thoughts; perhaps it was because they were the same.

“Let’s work together, Bel-Marduk,” Chang-Sun said.

“Hahahaha!” Bel-Marduk burst into manic laughter, having expected Chang-Sun’s offer.

The entire Imperial Palace trembled, but Chang-Sun was unfazed and simply watched Bel-Marduk. Bel-Marduk’s laughter lasted for a long time, as if he was experiencing the funniest thing he had ever heard in his lifetime.

Bel-Marduk panted hard as he eventually stopped laughing with great difficulty. He asked, “What? Do you mean it?”

“Do you think I’m joking?”

“The famous ‘Divine Twilight’ is stooping pretty low! I can’t believe you would ask for help from your enemy who caused your lover’s death!” Bel-Marduk taunted.

“That’s how desperate I am,” Chang-Sun answered.

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Bel-Marduk roared suddenly, his prior amusement nowhere to be seen. His vicious, murderous energy raged like a storm. Veins bulged out from his face. “You! And I! We shouldn’t do that! We may be weak, but we never yield!”

“You’re also me, so why would I be yielding if I asked you to work together on this?” Chang-Sun replied.

“Don’t play with words!” Bel-Marduk screamed.

Whooosh!

Bel-Marduk’s murderous energy boiled in the air.

Whoosh, swoosh, swish...!

A storm rippled out, bringing down the Imperial Palace and shattering the sky barrier like a glass window. The entire planet trembled precariously as if it would be destroyed at any minute.

“Do you think I’m joking righ...!” Bel-Marduk began.

“Then what in the world have you accomplished?” Chang-Sun interrupted.

“...What?”

“You told me I wasn’t desperate enough yet, but I can say the same of you. Do you seriously still think you can stop everything on your own?” Chang-Sun replied, tilting his head.

The more Bel-Marduk’s eyes shone ferociously, the harder the capital planet trembled with his Divine Class. However, Chang-Sun remained nonchalant.

“Yeah, you may be right. I might be acting stubborn right now, but I don’t think you can understand me, since you’ve only gone through a bit of the pain I went through. And...” Bel-Marduk quietly continued, “...I’m almost done with my preparations, so I don’t think you’ll be any help to me.”

Chang-Sun had a feeling he knew what Bel-Marduk’s preparations were about. He asked, “Are you talking about the Nereid Stone?”

Bel-Marduk replied with a half-smirk, “You’ve already seen it, haven’t you? It’ll make the talk much easier.”

He extended his hand.

Pzzz―!

Rummmble!

A golden lightning bolt fell from thick dark clouds that filled the sky, passing through Bel-Marduk’s fingers.

Pzzzz―!

The moment Bel-Marduk grabbed the lightning bolt, it sparked more violently, turning into an enormously long spear. For some reason, Chang-Sun had an impression that the spear resembled [Gungnir]. Perhaps Bel-Marduk had changed or distorted his in his own ways as he continued to build new ones.

“I’ll kill you and get closer to becoming an Emperor, then I’ll drag down Ubbo-Sathla from the sky and shred them to death. That’s what I concluded would be the only possible way of killing Ubbo-Sathla,” Bel-Marduk said.

Rummmmble―!

Bel-Marduk fiercely unleashed his lightning energy toward Chang-Sun, so Chang-Sun drew all his four slayer swords from [King’s Treasury], thinking that he would get nowhere in persuading Bel-Marduk before defeating him.

1. This is actually an amorphous monster from the Cthulhu Mythos. ?