The world illuminated by the dispersion of light was beautiful. Unlike the light of Allforone, which forced all the beings it touched to submit, the lights the new believers produced showed a completely different temperament: a mixture of death and fight aura.

[More darkness properties have been acquired.]

…

[The amount of faith is accumulating at a steep rate.]

[Faith level has crossed the first threshold! As the qualifications and conditions have been met, some of the information on ‘Cast of the Black King’, which had remained hidden and unknown, has been partially released. Please check the information window for details.]

…

[The concept of death has been strengthened.]

[The concept of death has been strengthened.]

[The powers you possess have been strengthened.]

…

[The gods of death’s loyalty towards you have risen.]

[The demons of death’s loyalty towards you have risen.]

…

[Your perceived presence by the Black King has grown stronger.]

[The Black King is starting to exhibit a small interest in ‘this dream’. He offers you a present!]

Yeon-woo felt conflicted about the Black King’s interest in him and his attempt to empower Yeon-woo with a gift. Although Yeon-woo was happy about gaining greater strength, he was also nervous about getting too entangled with the Black King.

Compared to the Black King, Yeon-woo was still just a speck of sand. Yeon-woo knew that everything he had built up would disappear completely if the Black King made up his mind to dismiss him. Having thought this far, Yeon-woo felt it might be beneficial to curry favor with the Black King given this opportunity. Yet, at the same time…

‘This dream?’ After listening to the Black King’s message, Yeon-woo fixated on that one phrase. He wondered what the dream meant.

Among the many concepts that the Black King possessed, Yeon-woo possessed the concept of death while Harmonia possessed the concept of dream. But more precisely, Harmonia swam in the dream world of others and directly invaded their unconscious at will, which allowed her to raise her power over the emptiness. However, the Black King’s words seemed to carry a slightly different meaning.

‘This dream… does that mean there are other dreams?’

[Time Difference]

Yeon-woo tried to quickly organize his judgment in his fast-paced stream of Consciousness. He felt he had a clue.

Which version of me are you? Yeon-woo took a glimpse into Kronos’ past. As a child, Kronos, under Uranus’ order, had visited the Black Swamp with his other brothers. It actually became an abandoned section once the universe was created. At the place that was said to devour everything, whether it be good or bad, Kronos met Demonism. That was the question Demonism posed at the time. Furthermore… How many times have I spun through the cycle? Well, no matter. I can just do it again until it works. Demonism had also uttered these other words.

Although Kronos had questions regarding these words, he could not keep up with his thoughts for a long time because he constantly suffered while fending off Demonism. And after barely recovering, Kronos had forgotten all these words as if they had never happened.

This did not mean Kronos’ memory was erased. Kronos’ unconscious judged these memories and words to be insignificant and buried them in the deepest recesses of his memory swamp. When Yeon-woo reviewed Kronos’ memories, he recalled this exchange and then asked Kronos if he knew anything about the Black King’s words.

『No. I don’t have a clue. As you already know, I was just an Apostle of the Black King in name only. I didn’t really know anything about him. Most of the time, I obtained my powers automatically through Demonism.』

In the end, Demonism knew all the details.

‘Anyway, after bringing the Tower down, I’ll meet the Black King. I was thinking of going to the swamp someday as well. Then…I guess I’ll find out eventually.’ Rather, Yeon-woo wondered what gift the Black King had in store for him.

A message soon followed.

[The Black King has cut off one part of his left ring finger.]

[Your gift from the Black King has arrived!]

Whoosh! A black marble landed on Yeon-woo’s palm. It was a beautifully sparkling marble that seemed to have been pulled out from the darkness, and it was finely sculpted.

[Darkness Jade]

[Type: Immeasurable]

[Class: Immeasurable]

[Description: A holy relic given by the Black King. Description unknown until user comprehends the usage of the item.]

The explanation was too simple. Seeing that the type and grade were judged as immeasurable, it was clear to Yeon-woo that the Tower’s system considered the item so great that it struggled to grasp it. The quantity and quality of darkness contained within it was also different from any other object he had ever seen. Even Yeon-woo, who had already reached a power level where most gods were beneath him, was reluctant to touch the darkness jade.

[The gods who are attacking the seventy-seventh floor sense the holy relic, ‘darkness jade’, and shudder in fear!]

[Most of the gods look at ‘darkness jade’ with astonishment on their faces!]

[All demons are in great shock!]

[Metatron, the leader of , is silent.]

[Baal, leader of , is not providing a response.]

The heavenly world’s reaction was no different. Even the gods who were busy dealing with Allforone showed the same response. What was most shocking was… ‘The Black King cut off part of his ring finger?’

Compared to the overall power of the Black King, the marble was only a very small portion of the Black King’s power. Based on the circumstances and explanation, it was clear that the darkness jade was an item created and sent after the Black King cut off a piece of his finger… If a piece of the Black King’s finger possessed so much power, Yeon-woo could not imagine how powerful the Black King’s true body would be.

Moreover, the biggest problem for Yeon-woo was that it was impossible to guess the darkness jade’s usage. If Yeon-woo could not figure out its purpose, it would inevitably become an unusable and unnecessary item. Essentially, it would be useless.

‘I think I’m being teased.’ Yeon-woo wondered whether the Black King may have presented him with the gift to watch his reaction or to test him, as the Black King probably knew that Yeon-woo would be terrified over the gift. Fortunately, Yeon-woo’s doubts did not last long.

『This…!』Kronos’ reaction was unusual.

“Father, do you know what this is?”

『… of course, I know. How can I not?』Kronos said as he took a deep breath.『It’s Scythe’s main core.』

“…!” Yeon-woo widened his eyes as he looked at the jet-black jade. He knew that Scythe was the divine weapon that Kronos had wielded during his days as the king of gods.

Kronos had recommended Scythe to Yeon-woo as the only weapon that could cut through Allforone’s light. Thus, Yeon-woo had been planning to make Scythe someday. And now that the Allforone raid started, along with the Yin Sword, Yeon-woo needed Scythe. However, most of the adamantine, which was the most important material to make Scythe, was monopolized by the Sea of Time. Thus, Yeon-woo had paused on making Scythe.

Originally, Yeon-woo was planning to enter Allforone’s world of light, save Count Ferenc, and then focus on making Scythe… It could be said that Yeon-woo’s plans were too idealistic in a situation where he did not have any spare time.

However, Yeon-woo could not help but delay his decision to make Scythe because of the drastically changing conditions that he currently faced, such as the Sea of Time’s unusual movements, Malach and L’Infernal’s independent movements, and the Creator God fiasco.

Still, even during this urgent time, Yeon-woo was not too concerned about making Scythe because he had already had a plan in mind. As long as they had the same goal, the Sea of Time would have no reason to continue monopolizing adamantine.

However, Yeon-woo could not help but be surprised to receive a Scythe-related material from the Black King out of the blue.

『Of course, adamantine isn’t the only material needed to make Scythe. To change the nature of the materials, other ingredients are needed…but I don’t think you need to concern yourself with those other ingredients since Popo and Pepe said they’d get you them.』

“But you’ve never mentioned the darkness jade to me before, right?”

『That’s because you had Vigrid. Although it’s quality has gone down, Vigrid itself is made of darkness jade, so it wouldn’t have been very difficult to make Scythe with it.』

“… simply put, if I proceeded as you described, I would have created a second-rate Scythe, right?”

『Since you’ve strengthened the spring of death, I thought the gap could easily be filled. But…』

Kronos muttered in an exasperated voice.『I never expected you’d receive such a darkness jade.』

In the past, Kronos had gone through countless quests to get his darkness jade, so he shook his head as he recalled his past days of hardship and Yeon-woo’s tremendous luck. And yet, Kronos could not help but feel his soul tremble at the sudden development.『Son, it seems the Black King knows everything that you’re thinking, no?』

Yeon-woo nodded heavily, since making Scythe was a secret that he had not told anyone about. Even though the Black King had fallen into a deep slumber and lost awareness, the Black King seemed to know everything about Yeon-woo. It would have been weird if Yeon-woo did not feel a sense of fear.

『Is he testing you to see if you’re worthy of being his successor?』

Yeon-woo nodded once more. Meanwhile, the darkness jade in his hand was still emitting a terrifying aura. “He’s probably also using me as a proxy to do his bidding.”

Considering that it was the Heavenly Demon that threw the Black King into the emptiness and considering that Allforone was the son of the Heavenly Demon, it was a natural reaction for Black King to assist Yeon-woo.

The Black King had no other choice but to hope that Yeon-woo and Harmonia, his successors, succeeded in raiding Allforone. Only then could the Black King get back at the Heavenly Demon, and only then could the Black King consider how he could wake up from his slumber. Thus, it seemed that these reasons were why the Black King was lending his power to Yeon-woo. Perhaps the Black King offered a similar level of support for his other successor, Harmonia.

‘I feel used.’ Not only did Yeon-woo feel that his plans had been fully exposed, but he also felt sick that he was being taken advantage of. This offering went beyond the level of support from the Black King. It was at the level of being harrassed. The oppression one felt when a being boasted overwhelming power over another was simply annoying.

Still, Yeon-woo decided that he needed to do the Black King’s bidding. Once he made his decision, the previously slowed world returned to a normal flow of time.

Sss. Yeon-woo could see the prisoners, who had all turned into his followers, leap into the air.

They were able to raise their morale and fighting spirit through the darkness’ blessing, and they demonstrated a powerful force as if releasing all the years of resentment that they had been suppressing until now. Count Ferenc and the Vampiric Lord stood at the forefront and quickly parried the light beams pouring out at them from all directions.

Laplace was joyously making a big fuss.

『Ferenc, buy some more time. Athena and Olympus will be assisting us from outside the stage, so make sure you coordinate and cooperate with them as well.』

『I shall follow your orders.』Count Ferenc did not ask questions. He only showed blind faith and loyalty. For followers like him, this battle was a struggle against oppression and a holy war for the god who gave them new opportunities and a lease on life.

Athena, Yeon-woo’s chief apostle, was carrying out a separate plan, so Ferenc and the others had to lead the battle accordingly.

Olympus, Ghost Giants, Dragons of Death, Arthia… Yeon-woo’s followers from his holy territories… In addition to all these beings, there were also Yeon-woo’s familiars. Under the banner of ‘Marching to One’s Death,’ everyone was doing their part. On the seventy-seventh floor, where everything had been covered in light, darkness slowly started to spread out. Thus…

‘Everything has been set.’ As Yeon-woo desired, various pieces had been set onto the chessboard, from those in the heavenly world and Central Bureau to the members of the Sea of Time. And now, all that was left was…

‘To eliminate the king.’ And to do that, Yeon-woo needed a final paving stone. ‘Scythe.’ Yeon-woo closed his eyes. He went deep into his Consciousness.

[The spring of death is fiercely spinning!]

[The spring of time is slowly winding!]

The pocket watch around Yeon-woo’s neck started to slow down for the first time. Then, the whole world flowed very quietly as if it had been paused.

***

『I was wondering if you would come here. Seems you have.』

When Yeon-woo reopened his eyes, he was in the abyss, the deepest place in his unconscious Illusory World. From time immemorial to the present day, Harmonia still stood as gatekeeper in front of the huge, arche-type gate where the knowledge and thoughts possessed by countless living beings and souls were united.

Previously, Yeon-woo had to swim countless hours to get to this place, but this time around, he was able to get to the gate easily because he had already been at the gate before. He momentarily looked at the gate behind Harmonia with curiosity, but he soon lost interest and looked at Harmonia. “Putting aside all the pleasantries, let me get straight to the point. I need Scythe. How much adamant do you have?”