The sky was stained a deep, bloody red, as if paint had been poured across it.
Beneath it, in the city where the Shrine stood, a colossal pillar of light pierced straight through the heavens.
As countless humans, armed and determined, gathered beneath it, a tremendous war erupted.
Abaddon swung his greatsword, felling enemies with a single blow.
The eighth king.
Chosen as the final king, he had won the right to survive.
The Oracle descended.
A final judgment to bring the world to an end.
It was promised that only one kingdom would survive within it.
The king who seized the Shrine.
The eight chosen kings would fight for the survival of their kingdoms and the right to exist.
Only the chosen, only he, knew the place.
The stage for the last war of kings, Harmageddon.
They had to kill everyone there and claim the Shrine for themselves.
“Attack! If we don’t take the Sanctuary, we have no future!”
Abaddon cried out with grim resolve.
Then Abaddon led his forces to assault the prophesied Sanctuary of the Oracle.
The prophecy would be fulfilled without fail.
“We must win this war if we are to survive!”
No one knew what form judgment would take, but for now, the chance to survive was given.
There was no reason to hesitate. Every human fought desperately.
Thus, Harmageddon forgot its brilliance and became a gruesome battlefield.
A brutal cityscape unfolded before their eyes.
Corpses lay scattered everywhere.
A place of madness where the struggle for survival played out.
Within that chaos, the forces led by Abaddon achieved victory.
All those who tried to protect the eight kingdoms and the Shrine of Harmageddon were slaughtered.
“We’ve won!”
“The Sanctuary is ours now!”
Abaddon and his men savored their victory, finally able to enjoy a sweet moment of rest.
But looking back, it was nothing but miserable.
They had abandoned their homes, leading everyone to this distant land for war.
And the city they had finally seized was only a small Sanctuary of some Order.
All they gained was a ruined city and a single Shrine; in truth, they had lost everything.
“So what happens to us now?”
One of the captains of the Order of Knights approached Abaddon.
He looked at him with eyes full of emptiness.
Abaddon also sighed and looked up at the sky.
“The Oracle is absolute. We must obey Their commands.”
Depending on the whims of the gods, humans could be killed like ants.
There was no defiance—only following the commands of the goddess.
Even after he became the chosen one, he had seen everything with his own eyes.
He knew just how cruelly those who defied the gods died.
Abaddon spoke to the captains of the Order of Knights.
“All we can do now is wait. The goddess will descend and uphold the covenant.”
Abaddon lowered his bloodied sword and gazed at the Shrine where the Oracle had been delivered.
“Now, salvation shall come to us…”
At that moment, another pillar of light shot down to the spot.
KWAANG!
Abaddon squinted against the dazzling light.
“O…”
Even just being exposed to the light was agony.
His entire body felt as though it were burning away.
Atop the Shrine sat a beautiful woman with white wings.
Her shining silver hair gleamed brilliantly.
Her ruby-like, gem-red eyes sparkled.
She looked down upon them with a haughty, almost disdainful gaze.
“Goddess? We’ve been awaiting your descent.”
At last, Abaddon knelt before her and spoke.
A bewitchingly beautiful voice flowed from the woman’s lips.
—I thank you for your efforts thus far.
She curled her lips in a chilling smile.
Abaddon cautiously asked her,
“Goddess, will you now grant us the salvation you promised…?”
- Interest
—Yes. A promise must be kept. I shall preserve you, so you may forever remain bound to this world.
“Then…”
With a casual gesture, she conjured an enormous magic circle across the entire city.
Countless rune-forged chains erupted forth.
They writhed like tentacles, coiling around Abaddon and every human of the kingdom.
“W-what is this! Did you not promise us?”
Abaddon shouted in confusion at the sudden turn of events.
The woman opened her lips slowly.
—I am keeping my promise. I’m simply giving you a form that matches this dying world.
Her words, full of hidden meaning, left Abaddon staring at her in bewilderment.
“W-what do you mean by that…?”
Instead of answering, she waved her hand lightly.
At that moment, a message window appeared before Evan, who had been searching through these memories.
—The system has been destroyed.
—Abnormal access has been detected.
—The Administrator of the world has used forced authority.
—The adjustment of the world has begun.
As the familiar messages appeared, countless meteors began to rain down from the sky.
Everything Evan could see twisted and warped.
—Memory has been damaged. Confirmation is impossible.
A moment later, everything vanished into a black void.
Evan stood in that dark space.
He was speechless at the memories of Abaddon he had just witnessed.
It seemed that, in the end, humans had been used by the goddess and betrayed, meeting a wretched fate.
No, their end was to become Undead, trapped within this world inside the Gate.
But there were still some questions that lingered in Evan’s mind.
If meteors had fallen, the world should have ended.
Yet the world where Evan now stood was intact, and it had ended very differently from Ellecell’s world.
‘No, was the adjustment of the world ultimately the same?’
It seemed certain there was a connection with Ellecell’s last world.
Evan began to infer using every clue he’d gathered so far.
The link between Ellecell and Abaddon.
The common thread was that both worlds had been shattered at the hands of the world’s Administrators, ending in misery.
‘The world ended, yet it still exists. And unlike Ellecell, these people remained as Undead inside the Gate’s world.’
Evan recalled his memories of conquering the Gates in the previous world.
Inside a Gate, nothing made sense.
Some were inhabited only by monsters, others twisted into bizarre, warped spaces.
And, as in this case, worlds populated only by humans transformed into Undead.
Many were also tied to ancient ruins.
Given all this, he thought,
‘Were Gates originally pre-existing worlds?’
It wasn’t certain, but that was the only explanation that fit the evidence.
He’d have to get more precise information through the Order or Ellecell.
“Anyway, it’s certain that the root of the Gates is here.”
A cold murderous intent flickered in Evan’s eyes.
If the root cause of the great calamities from his previous world was here, he could never let it slide.
It was practically the same as the enemy who had ruined his life and killed his brother.
A deep rage, sleeping within his heart, began to boil up.
But Evan forced himself to calm down and think.
If the world’s Administrators were his targets for vengeance, then he’d have to change his plans.
Now, he was starting to see who his true enemy was.
‘If the so-called goddess they worship is actually the Administrator of the world…
The goddess worshipped by the Order.
Their power would become the most threatening of enemies.
‘For now, it seems I’ve found a decisive clue.’
But there was another problem here.
Recalling the goddess’s appearance and the power she wielded—it was beyond absurd.
‘Power enough to call down meteors. What on earth is she?’
An Administrator who could pronounce judgment on a world.
Her power was utterly overwhelming.
If she began the world’s adjustment now, he’d be utterly powerless to resist.
But conversely, there were several possibilities to consider.
‘From what I see, the world’s Administrators seem to want to end the world.’
That was the common thread in both Ellecell’s and Abaddon’s memories.
If they truly wanted to end the world, they could do it right away, using that overwhelming power.
But in Ellecell’s case, they went through the trouble of adjusting the world multiple times before finishing it.
In Abaddon’s case, they couldn’t even do that, instead making promises with him.
Commanding him to seize the Shrine.
Given all this, Evan was able to reach one conclusion.
‘They can’t end it immediately. There must be some condition.’
As Evan was lost deep in thought—
—The first seal of the Mirror of Heaven has been released.
—You have discovered the Hidden Piece: Damaged Old World.
Evan’s eyes lit up as he read the messages.
‘The seal of the Mirror of Heaven has been released?’
It was an item he’d obtained during the battle with the Nervan Order.
A mirror he received after purifying the Demonic Mirror that had summoned a false goddess.
It had been sealed away in his inventory, and he’d almost forgotten about it.
Evan pulled out the Mirror of Heaven from his inventory.
Immediately, he checked its information.
Grade: SS
-Category: Sacred Relic
-Defense: 1 (+Divine Power)
-Durability: ∞
-No usage restrictions
-Effect: Absolutely unbreakable. Reflects the world. By consuming Divine Power, you may unlock the mirror’s power; while unlocked, you can reflect attacks in proportion to Divine Power.
-Mirror World: You may reflect the world itself and contain it, and travel into the world contained within the mirror.
-??
-??
-Other: A mirror imbued with the power of a god, left for the sake of the world. It is said that one’s true form is reflected before this mirror.
A new effect had been added to the Mirror of Heaven.
Mirror World.
‘It can contain an entire world?’
It reflected a world, stored it, and allowed one to enter it.
That was a power beyond belief.
Evan decided to test out the Mirror World power of the Mirror of Heaven.
—Would you like to reflect the Damaged Old World in the Mirror of Heaven? (Y/N)
Evan accepted lightly, and the warped, black space began to be sucked into the mirror.
A moment later, holograms appeared before Evan’s eyes.
-Damaged Old World (Entry permitted for level 500 and above)
-(None)
-…….
The holograms looked like surveillance camera screens, showing the world he’d just witnessed through Abaddon’s memory.
Of course, there was a level restriction, so he couldn’t enter the world just yet.
But for Evan, this was a stroke of immense fortune.
“To think I can visit an entire world…”
Now, he could search for more traces of the past.
But there were also risks to consider.
Entering a ruined world could mean dying with that world, as he’d just seen.
‘I can understand why there’s a level 500 restriction.’
Whether the Mirror World was the real thing or not—he’d have to check for himself. But it was clearly dangerous.
Evan decided to use the Mirror of Heaven only when he was fully prepared.
A short while later.
“…Young master!”
Alan’s voice rang out.
Then the empty space was gone, and Evan found himself back in the royal hall where he’d originally been.
“Young master, are you alright?”
Evan nodded slowly.
“Yes, I was just lost in thought for a moment.”
Evan then looked ahead.
By now, Abaddon had already disappeared.
Having witnessed his tragic life, Evan wore a bitter expression.