Ch-248. **I Exist**
—
“…It’s become minced meat.”
Twitch. Twitch.
Raiga stared at the lumps of flesh rolling across the floor.
Something that had been cut apart so many times it no longer held a recognizable shape.
The former body of the Heavenly Demon.
A monster that had abandoned its humanity—slashed hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of times until even its regeneration struggled to keep up.
Yet it did not die.
The fragments had not been removed or absorbed.
Someone had simply… kept playing with it like a toy.
“What in the world happened here…?”
The Heavenly Demon was strong.
So strong that even he had to give his all when fighting it.
Yet that mighty figure was now thinly sliced meat rolling on the ground.
Judging from the remaining traces, this was close to unilateral violence.
Who?
Who had turned the Heavenly Demon into this state?
*It’s afraid.*
Above all, the lump of meat was soaked in terror.
Terrified—so terrified that despite being able to regenerate, it refused to heal itself.
Because it knew that if it regenerated, it would only be crushed again.
Before overwhelming violence, there was nothing it could do but suffer.
But Raiga found this strange.
The Heavenly Demon was not the type whose mind would collapse from mere power disparity.
All beings who had survived the Abyss for eons shared the same: a lofty, unshakeable psyche.
*Helplessness, despair… but more deeply than that—complete denial of existence.*
Raiga tasted the thick emotion emanating from the flesh.
In short, the Heavenly Demon had been denied as an existence.
He didn’t know how that could be possible, but the Heavenly Demon had been denied being the Heavenly Demon.
It had been ignored, toyed with—deemed not even worthy to absorb its Fragment.
Someone had terrified even the fiend of the heavens to this degree.
And not only that—
“The Heavenly Demon isn’t the only one. The entire island… is afraid.”
It was trembling.
As if something that should never have appeared had manifested.
Even Raiga himself felt suffocated by the tension.
Someone who crushed the Heavenly Demon like this—
Someone who pressed down on the entire island.
The one who first came to mind was the Unborn Being, but he shook his head.
If that monster had been involved, it would have swallowed the Fragment whole.
And most likely… the one responsible for this result was the man standing at the center of the island.
“No way… is it you? Goat.”
The Golden Goat.
The detestable bastard who had suddenly transferred him into the Star Expedition prison.
After being thrown into that celestial prison, everything had changed while he was gone.
The trials had nearly ended.
Everything was already finished.
And he had done nothing, merely self-destructed and drained his life away.
Such futility, such helplessness.
*I cannot let it end like this.*
Raiga shook his head and stepped forward.
There was something more urgent than retrieving the Fragment.
If the one in the island’s center was indeed the Golden Goat, he needed to learn who he truly was and what his intentions were.
And if, by any chance, he posed a threat to the Empire—
—then Raiga must burn what little remained of his life to stop him.
—
—
The closer he drew to the center of the island,
the deeper Raiga felt himself sinking into a mire.
“…What… are these.”
The scattered lumps weren’t just the Heavenly Demon.
The Unborn Being had exploded,
the Star Breaker had no upper body,
and the Tomb Master lay in pieces, twitching like a broken doll.
*Was the Storm Amplifier eaten by the Unborn Being?*
It seemed he had exploded mid-digestion and merged into this mass.
A grotesque, horrifying sight.
What had happened here?
On top of that—
*The Celestial Whale and the Sunken Emperor. The two destroyed each other.*
Both were corpses.
But unlike the others, those two had died fighting one another.
Why had they clashed?
What could have driven them into this situation?
Raiga desperately hoped the “Sunken Emperor” was not the Emperor of the Empire.
*Everyone except me… is finished.*
It was absurd.
He had been transferred to the Star Prison for merely a day.
Just one day.
And in that single day, everything had been decided.
Had he not been imprisoned, he would surely have been among these mangled corpses.
Raiga had never witnessed a scene so terrifying in his entire life.
With a hardened expression, he quickened his pace toward the island’s center.
And when at last he arrived—
upon seeing the face of the man standing there,
Raiga let out a strangled scream.
“You—!”
—
—
—Denial of results?
—Rejecting the ending?
—Then you will lose everything.
—The power you gained, Isabella’s memories, even this victory!
—All of it will vanish!
I know.
I already know the consequences of what I’m doing.
I intended to return everything to nothingness.
“The Abyss is truly the Abyss. Don’t you think so? You never know what might happen.”
I smiled faintly.
From the moment I stepped into the Abyss, I had been prepared.
Anything could happen here.
Whatever you imagined—something greater always occurred.
“Randolph. You are another side of me. The version of me who focused solely on Pangaenia. The future I would have had if I abandoned reality.”
I acknowledged it.
You were simply another facet of me.
And at the same time, I realized—
Level 10.
Or perhaps beyond that—
This form was the ideal I should have reached.
The current me was imbalanced.
Park Hyunmyung of reality, and Randolph of Pangaenia—
the two could never align.
Thus, I could never reach Level 10.
Could never grow stronger.
Only after abandoning Park Hyunmyung did balance finally emerge.
But…
I reject it.
“I won’t discard anything.”
Because Isabella had shown me.
The value of reality.
My name, my existence—all of me.
The possibility of moving forward.
“Park Hyunmyung, Randolph, Wilhelm… and Isabella.”
I spoke their names.
A name is existence.
To name something is to affirm that it exists.
“I will not let go of anything connected to me.”
I will hold onto everything.
—Nonsense!
—Returning to nothing means abandoning everything you obtained!
—You’re throwing it all away just to get Isabella!
—And even if you abandon everything, Isabella will not revive!
—You cannot resurrect a completely extinguished existence!
My other self refuted.
Even if I lost everything, I might gain nothing.
“She simply hid beyond the ‘Gate.’”
But I had seen it.
The Gate of Truth.
Beyond it.
She was not yet gone.
Until the game formally ended, she was merely behind the Gate.
She only vanished *after* the game fully concluded.
Thus, before the game ends—
I needed to erase the game itself.
—You intend to bring back what lies beyond the Gate?
—Impossible!
—Opening the Gate is entirely different from retrieving what’s beyond it!
—Even if you bring something out, how can you be sure it’s Isabella?!
—You know nothing about the Gate!
—Fool! Idiot!
—You’ll never be able to save Pangaenia like this!
Not entirely wrong.
But not the full truth either.
When I abandoned Park Hyunmyung, perhaps my mind dulled.
But Park Hyunmyung—the one who plays Pangaenia—always keeps possibilities open.
The Gate of Truth.
Now, being who I am,
I opened it again.
【So you finally have something you want from the Gate?】
What do you desire?
What will you offer?
My mouth responded.
If I said I wanted Isabella, the Gate would take everything from me.
It expected me to state my desire.
As always, the Gate existed not to grant wishes, but to extract equivalent value.
“I will use this Gate as the price to bring Isabella back.”
【……】
“The Gate of the Eternal Monarch, Randolph. This should be enough to retrieve her.”
There was no reply immediately.
But I already knew.
All hidden traits were Gates.
Truths—completions.
I was declaring I would abandon the hidden trait of *Eternal Monarch Randolph.*
That price should be enough.
【…I have never seen a human like you.】
The Truth spoke.
A human willing to abandon his own completion to save another.
More than simple self-sacrifice.
It meant discarding even the measure of his soul.
“Can you do it?”
【…It is your Gate. Do as you please.】
With that, as if deflated, the “mouth” vanished.
Only then could I smile in peace.
Boom!
Rumble!
Lightning struck across the island.
Everything began returning, one by one, to its original state.
—Fool!
—The Eternal Monarch’s true power is denial of results.
—“Nullification of all rewards.”
—A supreme authority usable only once!
—The very reason the Monk of Eternity protected this island from destruction!
—Look at the outcome. Though preserved, nothing remains here.
The Island of God.
One of the few uncorrupted lands of the Abyss.
Long ago, the Monk of Eternity had protected this land from destruction.
Using his authority to leave a possibility for his people.
But that was all.
The Monk of Eternity himself gained nothing.
In the end, he perished with everyone else.
His authority allowed one gain—and demanded an equal loss.
—Do you truly not understand what this means?
—The Heavenly Demon Arts, Isabella’s memories of you, her feelings—everything will vanish!
—Not only that—every Abyssal monster you defeated will revive!
—Without the power of the Eternal Monarch, can you face them?
—Without me, can you shoulder everything alone?
My other self laughed loudly.
As if the future my choice would bring was obvious.
Like a curse—
that even if I revived Isabella, I would gain nothing else.
But I didn’t mind.
—I… I exist.
—The moment you abandon everything… I will rise again!
—From beyond the Gate… aaah—!
…
The noise ceased.
And the space around me changed.
This was no longer the Island of God.
A vast, empty expanse—like an endless sea.
The place I first arrived upon entering the Abyss.
*The Door.*
Before me stood a door.
Literally, a door.
A door that could open or close.
Two doors—both shut.
**《All conditions met. ‘Star hunt’ begins.》**
**《Those who wish to participate, enter the right door.
Those who do not, enter the left door.》**
**《Current participants — Raiga, Storm Amplifier, Tomb Master, Sunken Emperor, Star Breaker, Unborn Being, Celestial Whale, Heavenly Demon》**
Everything was as it had been at the start.
But not entirely.
Creak—
The door opened.
The right door for participants.
“…Hm? Sir Randolph?”
A beloved face appeared.
Softly, I said her name.
“…Isabella.”
“H-how… how is this happening…?”
Isabella looked bewildered.
As if she did not know why she had stepped out of the Door.
I gently took her hand.
“It’s fine.”
“…It’s fine?”
“Yes. Everything will be fine.”
Truly—everything was all right.
Even if she no longer yearned for me forever.
Even if she misunderstood or resented me again.
Nothing would shake me now.
“Let’s go.”
“Go… where?”
“The left door.”
“You’re giving up the Island of God…?”
“Yes.”
I nodded, then opened the left door—the one I had never opened before.
I no longer wished to participate in this game.
I had already obtained everything I needed from this place.
Without hesitation, I stepped through the left door.
**《Main Quest 11 – Abyss Monster Hunt is complete.》**
**《You have hunted: Storm Amplifier, Tomb Master, Sunken Emperor, Star Breaker, Unborn Being, Celestial Whale, Heavenly Demon, Godskin Hybrid.》**
**《Transferring to: ‘Monk of Eternity (Eternal Monarch)’》**
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