Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 349

Weapon-Eating Bastard – Chapter 349

Halla Mountain Peak.

I looked up at the sky, unable to believe my eyes.

“What in the world is that…!”

I could tell that the sky was not just simple darkness.

My mystic eyes could see it.

The intertwined souls and energies of countless beings—humans, animals, plants…

The black-painted sky was overflowing with ominous energy.

“Kid…”

The Mountain Keeper swallowed hard, his voice trembling, a rare occurrence.

“What, what in the… is happening?”

Even the Mountain Keeper.

Even the Mountain Keeper, who had lived for over 2,000 years, had never seen such a sight.

“The sky… it can’t be read. The cycle of souls is broken. This… this is truly absurd…”

I quickly pulled out the radio from my pocket.

-Static….

All I heard was noise.

The radio, which should have been connected to the mainland or the North through Jeju Island’s relay station, was dead.

‘What about the satellite phone?’

Out of coverage area.

The means to contact the North had disappeared.

I took a long breath and looked to the side.

“Elder Seop, Mountain Keeper, Elder Ryeo. I’m sorry, but I must ask you to handle the aftermath. And… please clean up this land as quickly as possible and come to the North.”

“To the North? What are you talking about?”

“The goblins alone won’t be able to hold out.”

I looked down the mountain.

Now, monsters would swarm this mountain as well.

The territory of South Korea was already overturned. Being an island, not the mainland, and with a small defense force, Jeju Island would collapse quickly.

“I don’t know the full extent of the situation, but things are already spiraling out of control. Perhaps… it can’t be stopped. So, you must join us.”

“…You’re taking us to the battlefield.”

Elder Seop’s question.

I nodded.

“If a fight for survival and protection is war, then yes, please come to the battlefield. The Mystics will need the strength of us humans, and humans will need the strength of the Mystics.”

After a brief silence, Elder Seop finished contemplating and answered.

“Alright. But we will fight not for humans, but for you and your friends.”

His eyes conveyed unwavering trust.

I gave a faint smile.

“…Thank you. That’s enough.”

After the conversation, I put my fingers in my mouth and whistled loudly.

Peeeeeeeeep!

With that sound, I saw the figure of a blackbird soaring through the sky in the distance.

Perhaps it felt the fear of the blackened sky as well, as its energy was more scattered than before.

“Are you leaving right away?”

“Yes, I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s happening, so I need to be where I can respond.”

“Alright, I understand.”

“You must join the humans as soon as possible. The end… has already come.”

I climbed onto the back of the blackbird, which fluttered and landed on the ground.

The blackbird flapped its massive wings and soared into the sky.

-Squaaawk!

The blackbird asked, as if asking where to go.

“Yes, for now, to the North…”

I was talking to the blackbird, but then I paused.

Since contact was lost, I was originally going to the North.

I was curious about my five brothers and the situation at the Northern Wall.

But.

“No, let’s go to the Aerial Fortress.”

I felt that the place I needed to be now was not there.

Aerial Fortress. That place would know the situation of this world better than anyone else.

* * *

Aerial Fortress, Central Archive.

The dwarves were motionless, their yellow eyes fixed on the air.

“H, how could this be…”

“What an ominous omen…”

“This has never happened before.”

“The sun and stars have all disappeared. Only a massive, ominous star that obscures the sun remains…”

The dwarves, according to their roles, observed the sky, obscured by the unfolding darkness.

The sky was covered in a sticky and ominous power, too much to simply call it darkness.

It was a solar eclipse [an astronomical event where the moon blocks the sun’s light].

Since ancient times, solar eclipses have been considered great omens of disaster.

In modern times, it is regarded as just a periodic astronomical phenomenon, but in a magical and religious sense, a solar eclipse symbolizes ominousness.

A solar eclipse is the loss of light.

It is the severance of life and the alienation of heaven and earth.

The flow of magical power between heaven and earth changes from direct to retrograde, and accordingly, all kinds of ominous beings gain power.

Moreover, this was clearly a phenomenon brought about by the intention of some being.

“There’s still a week left…!”

Only three days have passed since the omen occurred.

Yet it was already this severe. It was a situation unlike any previous destruction.

Perhaps this land… no, this blue planet, all the skies of Earth, would now be devoured by that great darkness.

It was at that moment.

“U, uh! Uwaaaaa!”

One of the dwarves screamed strangely and fell backward.

The dwarves, quickly turning their heads, saw an unbelievable phenomenon unfolding.

“T, the recording device!”

The crystal ball that recorded everything in the world.

That recording device suddenly began to turn black.

“W, we must stop it! No!”

Clang! Clang!

Subsequently, numerous crystal balls burst simultaneously and began to spill onto the ground.

“A, ah…”

The records here were hope.

They were means to test singularities [unique individuals or events] in preparation for the coming destruction and to help them grow.

But that hope for the future was being shattered.

“H, how? How could this happen?”

“…‘It.’ It must have noticed us.”

Uuuuuuuuuu…!

A vibration like the wail of a ghost echoed throughout the fortress, now filled only with fragments of shattered crystal balls.

“The Master must know about this.”

“Quickly, to the Master right now…”

It was at that moment.

-Screeeeeech!

In the distance, cutting through the sky, the figure of a giant bird and a person riding on it could be seen.

Lee Cheol. The singularity chosen by this era.

He was flying in rapidly.

“Master!”

“Master!”

“Master!”

I took in the shattered crystal balls and could grasp the situation that had unfolded.

“There’s no time, explain the situation immediately.”

Time was of the essence.

I looked at the dwarves.

I had instructed the dwarves to watch the world.

Because they would be able to grasp the destruction more accurately than any other eyes.

“Master… the end is truly near.”

“It has become even more cunning and stronger, and is about to descend…”

“It seeks to make this the final destruction, and has even destroyed the records of this fortress.”

The dwarves began to speak in trembling voices.

* * *

The hole was filled with an endless abyss where not a single ray of light could reach.

A black circle where the inside could not be seen.

An untouched space that was not even certain to be a hole in the first place.

Humans called that space a Blue Hole [a mysterious, dark void].

Throb!

And right above that Blue Hole.

A black-stained sun was floating there.

…No, could that really be called a sun?

No one in the world would call a murky, circular object that spewed out the darkest darkness instead of light a sun.

Rather, it resembled the maw of a beast. Or a gaping hole that seemed to swallow everything.

That hole was so similar to the Blue Hole.

Throb!

And in an instant.

Something began to move within the hole in the sky.

The darkness that had taken shape stretched out like taffy and slowly began to descend towards the Blue Hole.

It was an evil sight that could only be found in legends, and an indescribably ominous moment.

-Oooooooo!

-Aaaaaaaa!

-Kiiiiiiii!

As if sorrowful, as if painful, or as if joyful, as if happy.

From that darkness that stretched out and touched the Blue Hole, sounds like the wails of all life echoed.

Finally.

That pillar touched the Blue Hole.

The wailing pillar relentlessly dug into the Blue Hole.

And in an instant.

Kugung….

A vibration that shook the heavens and the earth echoed.

The seawater in contact with the hole vibrated greatly, scattering concentric waves in all directions.

Kugung!

The vibration did not end with just one.

Kuuuuuung!

Once, and then again.

And at some point.

Kugugu!

From within that darkness.

A being that should never have opened its eyes opened its eyes.

* * *

The dwarves quickly conveyed the situation to me.

“Of the five Class 1 monsters dispatched to humans, three have met their deaths, Master.”

“The Class 1 monsters of the North, Northern Europe, and China.”

Did we win?

That was fortunate.

Those who received my call must have played their roles sufficiently.

“But… the deaths of those Class 1 monsters were, in fact, only one part of a predetermined process.”

“…What? What does that mean?”

I frowned.

“All of this was a preparation for the Primordial Abomination to awaken on its own.”

“It… has become even more cautious. In fact, if it had wanted to, it could have risen right now, but it sent out vanguards to ensure perfection.”

Vanguards.

The dwarves were calling the Class 1 monsters that led the monsters that appeared all over the world mere vanguards.

“They… used the monsters to prepare food to enhance the power of the Primordial Abomination.”

“The deaths, despair, and fear of countless living beings… and even the many fragments of the world’s monsters that have not yet been recovered.”

“Wait.”

I paused for a moment.

“If it was to prepare that, then isn’t it over since we subjugated them?”

“That would have been the case originally.”

“But not now, Master. Not now…”

The dwarves sighed deeply.

“Because the solar eclipse has come and all balances have been broken.”

“‘It’ has already overturned the laws of physics of this world with its own power, and has even put the cycle of life and death and souls in its grasp.”

“In other words.”

The dwarf cut off his words and answered.

“Now that it has come to control even death with its power, the Class 1 monsters that were gathering food were originally destined to return to the Primordial Abomination through death.”

“…!”

It has come to control even death?

How could a mere being do that?

That was already closer to a god than a being.

“Now… death is neither rest nor a new beginning. Rather, it is only becoming a part of that monster, stuck in its maw without even being able to die.”

“Master.”

“Master…”

The dwarves surrounded me and looked up at me all at once.

It was at that moment.

The dwarves suddenly twitched.

Shudder!

That trembling continued for a long time.

I turned to look at the dwarves.

“Why are you doing that? Has something happened?”

“…Master. The end has come.”

“So it has. It was destined to be this way…”

“The fact that the Master came here may have been a miraculous event allowed by causality.”

The dwarves began to mutter incomprehensible words.

“What are you talking about?”

“Master.”

The dwarf’s robe slowly came off.

Above that face, which had only darkness and yellow light, a human figure seemed to be faintly visible.

“The Great Extinction has begun.”

“Now… no one can slow down or stop the wheel that has begun to roll.”

“Only you.”

“The one chosen by this era.”

“Perhaps the only adversary of that monster chosen by this world, Master.”

“Will be able to stop it.”

The dwarves are approaching.

They surrounded me and suddenly put their hands on my body.

“We believe in you. Master.”

“To save this world.”

“As you told us.”

“To cut down that Primordial Abomination and bring a new beginning, not an end, to the world.”

“What are you suddenly saying…”

At that moment.

Thud-!

The dwarves suddenly pushed me.

Of course, I didn’t get pushed away.

But when I came to my senses, I was standing on the ground.

‘Teleportation? Suddenly like this?’

I raised my head and looked up at the Aerial Fortress.

The sky was dark and the world was dim, but I could clearly see the Aerial Fortress.

But it was a moment.

Thump!

A heavy vibration echoed.

Like when the signs of destruction first began, it was a heavy vibration that spread throughout the world through the air and the ground.

And.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The vibrations echoed in succession.

It was like the reverberation of a beast that had just woken up from its sleep.

Hmm!

At that moment, I felt a warning ringing in my sixth sense.

I glared at the sky with my eyes wide open.

“No……”

-Way!

The last word was buried in the sound that echoed afterward.

Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!

Something crashed into the Aerial Fortress.

I opened my mouth with a distorted expression.

‘…The Aerial Fortress!’

There, I saw the figure of the fortress being shattered and scattered.

The Aerial Fortress.

The hope of mankind that had been floating in the sky for thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years, was being torn to pieces and falling.

Whirly-whirly! Kwaaaang!

Vast darkness pouring from the black-stained sky swept through the Aerial Fortress.

The magnificent and great fortress floating in the sky was shattered, scattering countless debris towards the ground.

-Master.

-We ask you for the end.

From the sight of the shattering Aerial Fortress, the last voices of the dwarves echoed.