Chapter 1169

The Dragon’s roar, which had pierced the clouds and shaken the sky, was gone. So were the two wings that had cast an immense shadow over the earth.

Yet there wasn’t the slightest emptiness in the endless sky.

If anything, it overflowed.

With the presence of a single being.

Another Dragon—the one who had brought the first crashing down.

“Jin!”

It happened in an instant.

The Grand Mage’s shout, amplified by Magic, swept across the battlefield. A moment later, tens of thousands of voices joined as one.

“Jin! Jin! Jin!”

As if they’d made a promise, they cried out with all their might.

They staunched the bleeding from severed arms and hauled their blood-soaked bodies upright.

They stared at the man walking down through the distant sky and shouted the name of the savior who had dragged from the heavens the evil Dragon that had nearly plunged the world into ruin.

Clang, clang, clang!

Countless spears and swords swayed like a forest in the wind, then surged toward the enemy like a wave.

Shhk! Krrrrrrunch!

The two waves that had surged toward each other, roiling with thick killing intent, were gone.

There were only humans advancing and monsters being swept away.

And amid that enormous scream and roar that shook heaven and earth, the clear sound of a bell rang in one man’s ear.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

System

The fire dragon raises its tail and sweeps the earth (火龍一尾), then shakes the open sky (天擊), and a new heaven shall open (開天).

You have forged your own path through deep insight into the Fire Dragon Divine Spear.

A new form has been added to the Supreme Peak martial art Fire Dragon Divine Spear. Its power and underlying principles have grown stronger.

Third Form, Open Heaven, has been registered. It will be recorded in the history of the Fire Gate Clan, and future generations will remember your name and your achievement.

You have accomplished the remarkable feat Learn from the Old, Know the New!

Your understanding of the Fire Gate Clan’s martial arts has deepened. When using related martial arts, you can direct qi more freely and consume less internal energy.

The realm of Flamefire Path has increased!

The realm of Flame Divine Palm has increased!

…

…

…

Congratulations. Fire Gate Divine Technique and Qi Sense have reached the ninth star!

This is both a stairway to a new realm and a massive wall blocking your path. May martial fortune be with you.

You have gained insight into Mind’s Eye. This ability activates only when certain conditions are met and causes extreme fatigue.

You have gained a tremendous amount of EXP and Fame.

Level Up!

Level Up!

All injuries have been healed as a result of leveling up.

Status effect Trance has been lifted.

The moment the last holographic window appeared in his blurry vision—

Squish.

Jin Taekyung’s foot came down on the ground, soaked in someone’s blood, as he stumbled forward as if about to collapse.

Sssssss.

Thick steam rose in the wake of his staggering steps.

But he knew that even blood this fiercely acidic could no longer harm a single hair on his head.

So did the owner of the silver blood flowing like a small river.

“Morgoth.”

At Jin Taekyung’s quiet voice, the Ancient Dragon’s eyelids, shut without so much as a twitch, slowly lifted.

“You’re late. Why did you take so long?”

His breath came raggedly, and his upper body had half melted away.

Between the cracks in his chest lay a large black jewel.

No—a Dragon Heart.

Despite Morgoth’s calm tone, he was in a ghastly state. Jin Taekyung dropped down beside him.

“I was tired. Thanks to someone.”

That was neither a lie nor an exaggeration.

Though he’d completely shattered the Dragon’s Breath, the force of its aftermath had destroyed his divine weapon, the Fire Dragon Armor. And the mental exhaustion that had built up throughout the battle was beyond imagining.

It would have been no surprise if he lost consciousness then and there.

If leveling up hadn’t healed his body, Morgoth wouldn’t have been the only one lying here.

“Lucky for me.”

“Luck.”

Morgoth murmured the word to himself and studied Jin Taekyung with his enormous eyes.

His clothes hung in tatters, leaving him nearly half-naked, and blood and dust covered his body.

But that was only his outward appearance. The skin visible through the rags was as smooth as a newborn’s.

Though Morgoth couldn’t sense even the slightest trace of healing magic.

“I don’t think luck alone explains it.”

“I was born with heaven-sent luck.”

“Are you sure?”

“What do you mean?”

“That doesn’t quite sound right. Perhaps…”

With his gaze turned toward the sky steeped in sunset, Morgoth continued.

“Divine favor. That might be the most accurate way to put it.”

“…!”

“You can use subspace freely without ever learning a single spell, let alone becoming a Grand Mage. And healing power like that… Yes. It’s hard to explain without divine favor.”

For a moment, Jin Taekyung fell silent.

God.

Ever since that blisteringly hot summer several years ago, when he’d obtained the capsule and woken in Murim, God had seemed both closer to him and farther away than anything else.

That one word, surfacing so suddenly in a conversation he’d never expected, disturbed his thoughts like a rock thrown into a still lake.

Before he could steady himself from the confusion that had seized him for just an instant, Morgoth continued.

“Do you believe in God?”

Morgoth asked the rigid Jin Taekyung without warning, then went on without waiting for an answer.

“I do. I always have.”

Of course he did.

Morgoth had always thought that he himself was practically a blessing from God.

A lifespan approaching immortality. Immense power granted at birth.

That was what Dragons were, and even among them, Morgoth stood apart.

Perhaps that was why the greatest scholar, warrior, and mage of any race on the continent had sought to draw closer to God.

“Every desire I pursued, every pleasure I sought—all of it was for that alone.”

Now Morgoth confessed without holding anything back.

His entire life had served a single purpose: to meet the absolute being who had created humans, elves, dwarves, and even monsters.

“So much time has passed in vain. Before I knew it, I had become a being who was everywhere and nowhere. Much like the God I’d sought for so long.”

He had been a creator and destroyer of the world, and a wanderer through it.

He had founded an empire that ruled the entire continent, then broken it into pieces. He had lived as a member of every race in the world, learning their ways and their rules.

But God never appeared.

Not even when the greatest of God’s creations, pursuing the faintest clue, reached into the realm of an unforgivable taboo.

“That was how I left for the Demon Realm. No—I suppose it would be more accurate to say I met him. As it happened, he was on his way to my homeland, too.”

“If you mean him—”

“Asmodeus. The most cursed demon since the heavens opened and the earth awoke. The most terrible nightmare, and the ruler of the Demon Realm.”

“…!”

“We fought, and he won. I was crushed by helplessness and defeat unlike anything I’d ever known.”

But even in the humiliation he felt for the first time in his life, Morgoth found the answer to a question.

“Before I met Asmodeus, a thought occurred to me. If I couldn’t find God anywhere in the land where I’d lived for thousands of years, perhaps God existed in another world, in a form I’d never expected.”

Morgoth had been wrong.

Demon King Asmodeus was unquestionably a powerful being beyond Morgoth’s reach, but he could never be called a god.

“In the end, I had to continue my long journey. Even if it meant burning my homeland and striking down my own kind under Asmodeus, of all beings.”

Jin Taekyung’s eyes trembled as he listened to the story drift by like the wind. The old Dragon didn’t miss it.

“You won’t understand. Perhaps no one would. But I had a goal I absolutely had to achieve. I believed I’d been born for it.”

And so Morgoth survived.

Though he had been the Dragon Lord, he killed dozens of his own kind and took their hearts. With the power he gained, he became the Archduke of the Demon Realm, second only to Asmodeus.

A long time passed again. Then he heard news that was hard to believe.

“A mere human defeated Asmodeus? At first, I didn’t even find it funny.”

But it was true.

Some of the monsters who had returned to the Demon Realm through the Gates relayed everything they had seen and heard. Soon everyone in the Demon Realm plunged into utter chaos—everyone except Morgoth.

He thrilled at the news.

In another world, one he hadn’t known existed, someone had appeared who had defeated Asmodeus—the being closer to God than any Morgoth had ever encountered.

The astonishing news was enough to revive his interest, slowly worn down beneath the weight of years piled up like dust.

And at last, the Ancient Dragon’s long-held wish had been answered.

Right here, today.

“It was the first time. In all the thousands of years I’d watched the order of things remain unchanged, you were the first being I’d seen defy it.”

At that moment—

Pop.

The Skeleton King’s head appeared out of nowhere and dropped into Jin Taekyung’s arms as though nestling against him.

“Jin Taekyung. Great human hero. No…”

Morgoth’s body edged closer to death, but his voice and gaze shone more vividly than ever.

“You who were chosen by God.”