Chapter 251

From the moment life takes its first step, every living being begins its own march towards death. Since nothing in this world is eternal, we are all destined to face mortality eventually.

Yet, people still gather their strength and move forward because, even though they know that day will come, they believe it won’t be tomorrow. When you think about it, whether the Primal Body exists or not, we will all die when our time comes.

He looked at me with a somewhat enigmatic gaze, curious about how I would react upon realizing the truth. Fortunately, I wasn’t too shocked. If I had still been in that small town, Larpentia, I would have been terrified, but now I’ve grown accustomed to such things. Whether this is called resilience or not, my past experiences have certainly helped me stay calm.

“This is probably the biggest event I’ve faced so far,” I thought.

I was there when the Imperial Palace was in turmoil, and when the Citadel almost collapsed. Those were major events that nearly brought down the royal family and the nation, but they pale in comparison to this. The fall of a family or a country is a once-in-a-lifetime event, but it means nothing compared to what the Demon King has revealed.

Now I understand why the Primal Demon King is so indifferent to worldly fame and fortune. From the beginning, he could have been anything and done anything, but he chose to do nothing because he knew it was meaningless. Listening to him, it seemed like he had witnessed the cycle of life and death countless times.

Having seen most of the world’s lifeforms perish and then flourish again, he was, in a way, the most despairing being in the world. There was no light left in his heart, so he had no desire to do anything.

The Primal Body, as it is called, cannot even be called despair. It is simply something that awakens and sleeps according to its own cycle. It’s not fear or despair, but rather a tragedy. The sad part is that we are living through the moment when this tragedy begins, and as long as we live in this moment, we cannot escape it.

“Haha, stop talking nonsense. This is ridiculous. Even if you are the strongest being on the continent, it doesn’t prove that everything you say is true,” the Evil God Oberta retorted with a forced laugh. Her laughter was awkward, and she couldn’t hide the fear on her face.

The seasoned Evil God, who had lived for centuries, couldn’t even control her expression because she knew the Demon King had no reason to lie to us.

“Have you never wondered, after attaining divinity and rising to the status of a god, if there was truly no one like you before? In the previous era, there were those who called themselves gods. What do you think they thought in their final moments?”

The Evil God couldn’t bring herself to answer.

“Did you think that by abandoning your physical body and becoming a god, you would be immortal as long as there was faith? That’s not entirely wrong, but if the subjects of that faith disappear en masse, the god can do nothing. If you plan to manifest and stop the Primal Body yourself, I won’t stop you. If you can!”

She stepped back, trembling, unable to hide her fear. Roka and Yanid, seeing this, fell into deep thought.

The Demon King muttered with a dry expression, “You call me the Demon King and the strongest on the continent, but in the face of the true continent, all those titles are meaningless. I have spent countless years researching how to stop it.”

“Even the so-called monsters are just byproducts of that research. No matter how many times I researched, the result was the same. The conclusion was always that it was too vast for me to handle. Even after all those years of training, I still can’t tell if the gap between me and it has narrowed.”

Training to stop it with power is impossible, and researching to stop it with knowledge is also impossible.

The inherent gap is just too vast. It’s not something humans can defeat through martial training, nor is it something that can be subdued with wisdom. At least not now.

We call someone who repeats the same process expecting different results a madman. But today, I realized who the true madman is. It’s the person right in front of me.

He already knows that no matter what he does, the result will be the same.

“Is there a way to stop it?” I hesitated to ask, already guessing the answer. The dragon beside me took the opportunity to speak first.

The Demon King just laughed and replied, “How wonderful it would be if there really was such a method! But if there were, I would have found it already. You can avoid it, run away, or delay it for a while, but there is no way to stop the cycle itself. Even the Ancient Gods don’t have that power.”

“I once placed my hopes on the power of the Ancient God within the World Tree of the Elves, but I was only disappointed. Even the Death God, who inherited some of that power, was not a vessel capable of stopping the cycle.”

At the mention of the Death God Modrig, Oberta’s expression twisted. As a god who directly competes with the Death God for faith, she couldn’t help but be sensitive.

“Did you create the Death God just for that reason? If you knew it was a failure, you should have disposed of it! Thanks to you, the continent has become quite a spectacle. Is this what you wanted?”

“I thought a newly born god needed time to grow accustomed to its power and develop its abilities. Maybe then it could surpass the Primal Body.”

“Thanks to you, the world is in chaos, yet you remain quite indifferent.”

“I waited, but that guy couldn’t even surpass me, let alone the Primal Body. He will naturally disappear without enduring this cycle, so is there any point in arguing further?”

Seeing her speechless, I swallowed the question I was about to ask. It had nothing to do with the fate of the continent, but there was one question I really wanted to ask.

Why did you send the Manticore to Pumpkin Vine Village that day? I really wanted to know why you harmed my neighbors and parents in my hometown.

But now, I think I know the reason. No, I’m sure of it without even asking.

The author has no interest in us humans, who will inevitably perish without enduring the cycle, nor in the monsters, which are mere failed experiments! No matter where the monsters go or what they do, the reason he lets them roam freely is because of this.

“That’s actually the question I wanted to ask you.”

Even though the author before me is clearly my enemy, I’m not sure how to deal with him.

He is already consumed by the concept of the Primal Body, trapping himself in a pit of suffering. Seeing my somewhat complicated expression, he raised an eyebrow.

“Aren’t you afraid, even after hearing all this?”

“I know being afraid won’t change anything.”

“Maybe that’s not it.”

After a moment of thought, he leaned on his chin and spoke again.

“The being behind you is probably one of those lofty Ancient Gods. Even if I, as a human, don’t have a way, he, as a god, might. Why did he lead you here? Does he really have a way to stop the cycle?”

Before I could say anything, the Demon King glanced somewhere and replied.

“If there is a way, whatever it is, you should try it as soon as possible. It might already be too late. Right now…”

Suddenly, the glacier began to shake. A rumbling sound accompanied the trembling of the ice. Roka hurriedly approached me and shouted anxiously.

“What are you doing right now?”

“Can’t you see I’m doing nothing?”

The tremors gradually weakened but didn’t stop. Even the strongest earthquakes shake the surface briefly and then stop, but this time was different.

Yes, it felt similar to the ground shaking with each step of a monster, but this was on a completely different scale.

“Now, Kalkanmir has awakened.”

Yes.

Unless something as massive as the Kalkanmir Mountain Range itself moves, such a thing would normally be impossible.

Something no one has ever experienced before is now truly happening.