CH 367

Lou fell from the sky, executing the perfect hero landing.

Kaboom!

The resulting blast shook the entirety of Gehenna.

“Kwerrrk!”

“Kirrr!”

The shockwave instantly swept away the army of black monsters with unrecognizable shapes racing toward them. In an instant, Lou had cleared the area before him.

“Hup.” Lou inhaled as he swung his black sword. It shot something dark and crescent-shaped toward faraway monsters, neatly splitting them into twos. Their blood and flesh stained the ground of Gehenna. Lou’s attacks had been powerful and had killed droves of enemies; however, he hadn’t even taken care of one-tenth of the total enemy force. The enemies were still racing toward them like ocean waves.

Lou frowned and muttered, “Disgusting.”

While the enemies before him seemed endless, he knew even more and even stronger creatures—who also happened to be his enemies—lived in Gehenna. Lou and the rest needed to defeat all of them, and only then would the one with the key appear.

‘The one who knows the exit leading out of Chaos’ stomach,’ Lou thought in anticipation. That figure was one of Kronos’ minions, but he was different from Andras, who was nothing more than a puppet. During his stay inside Gehenna, Kronos had put much effort into this figure.

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Lou was summoning his power while thinking about this figure when the Pandemonium castle entrance opened. The barrier that hid Pandemonium was long gone now. The pitch-black gate Lou and El hadn’t noticed earlier opened with an unpleasant sound.

“El,” Lou whispered when he saw El, her wings wide open, leading an army of tens of thousands of creatures. He grinned.

Grotesque monsters continued to swarm toward them, but Lou felt no fear. He wasn’t afraid to battle them. He felt he wouldn’t get tired regardless of how long he fought.

‘It has been such a long time.’ Lou was becoming excited. After syncing with Gi-Gyu, he had battled alongside El many times, but things were different now because he and El had regained their memories.

After falling into Chaos and creating Pandemonium together, El and Lou used to roam the most vicious battlefields together.

“This is nothing compared to what we had done then,” Lou murmured. When they had first arrived in Gehenna, it was in an even worse condition. They had to kill countless monsters to build Pandemonium.

Today, Lou would battle alongside El again.

Crack.

With an odd noise, several giant raven wings appeared on Lou’s back. The horns already on his forehead grew, and four more appeared next to them. The six horns looked like tall spires.

“Let’s have some fun.” Lou turned to see that the enemy monsters had gotten closer. “Just like before, the front line is mine.”

Lou took a step forward, his foot digging into the ground like it was cotton. He kicked the ground and flew up in a straight line like a bull with six horns.

***

A black figure flew all around Gehenna. It moved so fast that it seemed like a lunatic was swinging around a paintbrush.

‘Lucifer…’ El stood in front of the castle gate and watched the black figure moving all over the place. She needed to participate in this battle soon, but at the moment, she couldn’t help but stare. She was mesmerized by the beautiful scenery. Monstrous screams were everywhere, explosions filled the area, and El hadn’t even registered the gruesome flesh-rending and bone-cracking sounds because she was too mesmerized.

Even the Pandemonium soldiers standing behind El were in awe, unable to look away from Lou. El soon recovered and announced, “How long will you just stare like that?”

Her voice was soft, but it pierced every soldier’s ears. Turning toward them, El continued, “Can you find resentment and fury inside you?”

The soldiers turned toward her with utmost focus and wailed in anticipation. Unlike Lou and El, who had escaped Gehenna early on, these soldiers had been trapped here for a very long time. Since time flowed differently in this hellish place, no one knew how much time they had spent here. Their eyes burned with determination. The awe they had felt for Lou was replaced by excitement.

El ordered, “Go.”

Thud!

Koios, the traitor of Titan, one of the extinct species, took the first step forward. The ground shook ominously.

El continued, “Go get your revenge. Let your resentment and fury out.”

With Koios at the front, the giant monsters rushed forward. It was the start of a revolution.

“It’s time to leave this place,” El added.

“Ackkkkk!”

“Let’s get out of here! Let’s leave this fucking place!”

“Kill those bastards!”

“Freedom!”

“Kwerrrk!”

The soldiers roared as they marched forward. El could feel Lou smiling at her from far away.

‘But it’s not time for me to move yet,’ El decided. Like Lou had a role—pulverizing the enemy’s frontline—El did too.

Oh Tae-Gu whispered to El, “So it’ll finally end.”

The human players standing behind Oh Tae-Gu also hadn’t made their move yet.

El replied, “Indeed… We’ll finally see the end of it. He will make an appearance after all the monsters are dead.”

She had meant the warden of Gehenna whom Kronos had ordered to protect the place.

El whispered, “We’ll face Uranus soon.”

Oh Tae-Gu nodded and ordered the players, “It’s time for us to join them.”

Meanwhile, El’s job was to find Gehenna’s warden, Uranus, who was also Kronos’ father. Because Kronos couldn’t bring himself to kill his father, he had sent Uranus into exile instead. Later on, when Kronos had fallen into Chaos, he convinced Uranus to protect Gehenna.

It was said that the day Uranus woke up would be the day of revelation—Doomsday.

‘Uranus will be at the center of Chaos,’ thought El. Their enemies were the countless monsters and souls Chaos had eaten. El expected Uranus to appear after all the monsters' deaths because that would jar Chaos.

‘We will kill him and open the door.’ El was determined. She whispered, “But that would also wake up Chaos.”

That would be their last battle.

***

[Lou has regained all of his memories.]

[El has regained all of her memories.]

Gi-Gyu grabbed his head when he heard the sudden announcements by Gaia. With that, new memories entered his brain in waves. This was different from reading someone’s memory through sync. Gi-Gyu had no control over all these memories being forced into him.

‘Gaia is interfering with the system,’ Gi-Gyu thought vaguely. He couldn’t remember when it had begun, but the system was starting to work properly again. El and Lou’s recovered memories entered Gi-Gyu’s brain, causing a terrible headache.

“Gi…Gyu…”

Gi-Gyu could hear Tae-Shik and Go Hyung-Chul’s broken voices.

‘Lou… El…’ Gi-Gyu saw their lost memories from when Lou and El had been inside Chaos. He saw Kronos’ plan and various information related to Gehenna, Chaos, God, and the Tower. Lou and El had gained this information while dealing with Kronos and Gabriel inside Chaos. Their memories of thousands of years, perhaps even tens of thousands, were entering Gi-Gyu’s mind.

Pshh.

Gi-Gyu felt like his head was on fire. Too much information was being forced into his head, and he had difficulty accepting everything.

[You must accept everything.]

Gaia refused to even let him faint. There was no escape for Gi-Gyu from this situation. Even with all the power he had gained, he was helpless.

[You must accept everything.]

Just as Gi-Gyu was using all of his strength to survive this moment, Gaia was doing the same. Gi-Gyu could feel that, just as he had suspected, Gaia had lost a lot of her power. To be precise, the system had lost its power. The system was using all of its strength to inject these memories into Gi-Gyu forcefully.

“Gi-Gyu!”

After some time, Gi-Gyu could finally hear Tae-Shik’s voice clearly.

“...” Still dazed, Gi-Gyu looked around in silence. It was finally over. Lou and El’s thousands of years of memories were now inside him. His eyes still unfocused, Gi-Gyu began categorizing the information. His brain worked on autopilot because he was in survival mode now. Gi-Gyu’s brain sorted and grouped the information based on the time, its owner, and its importance.

“Gi-Gyu!” Gi-Gyu heard Tae-Shik’s voice again.

“I can hear you, Hyung.” Looking tired, Gi-Gyu turned toward Tae-Shik.

“What’s happening? You don’t look normal, Gi-Gyu. Are you okay?” Tae-Shik asked.

Gi-Gyu’s face was red, and his eyes were swollen like they were about to burst.

“I’m all right,” said Gi-Gyu. Although it was clear that Gi-Gyu wasn’t okay, Tae-Shik didn’t argue. To his relief, Gi-Gyu’s face began returning to normal.

‘But something is different now,’ Tae-Shik thought in confusion. He couldn’t explain what it was, but something about Gi-Gyu’s aura had changed. Tae-Shik gave a concerned look to everyone, including Go Hyung-Chul and Haures. Go Hyung-Chul and Haures seemingly wanted to rush to Gi-Gyu to help, whereas Kang Ji-Hee and the Angela Guild members backed away in fear. Their faces had gone pale due to the vicious energy Gi-Gyu had exuded a moment ago.

Tae-Shik asked Gi-Gyu again, “What happened?”

Tae-Shik’s voice was calm and cautious because he didn’t want to agitate Gi-Gyu. He looked into Tae-Shik’s eyes and answered, “Gaia…”

Tae-Shik stopped breathing while waiting for Gi-Gyu to continue.

“...died.”

“What?”

“Just now, the system, Gaia, perished completely.”

“What do you mean…?” Tae-Shik asked, but Gi-Gyu turned away.

Instead of answering Tae-Shik, Gi-Gyu stared at the door that led to the 90th floor.