**Chapter 407. Survival Quest.**
—
They say that when one reaches the ultimate, all paths converge into one.
And now, the Black King had confirmed the path he must walk.
*At last, it is time to unravel the Black Lion Clan’s long-cherished wish.*
The Black Lion Clan had carried a sorrowful, long-standing aspiration.
To complete the ultimate lifeform.
The ultimate lifeform meant the birth of an existence possessing absolute power that surpassed even *Ruin*.
Ruin…!
The weapon perfected by the Heavens was so shocking that it completely overturned the Black Lion Clan’s understanding of existence.
According to the records, before Ruin appeared, the White Tiger Clan and the Black Lion Clan had been on good terms.
However, after Ruin’s emergence, the two races clashed violently and crossed a river that could never be returned from.
*The White Tiger Clan and we, the Black Lion Clan, pursued evolution in fundamentally different ways.*
The White Tiger Clan regarded the nobility of the soul as the core of evolution.
They wished to become ‘gods’ themselves.
They believed that piling up the rank of the soul and attaining divinity was the ultimate form of evolution.
The Black Lion Clan, on the other hand, placed emphasis on the body.
They believed that only an indomitable physique and overwhelming magical power could bring about ultimate evolution.
From the beginning, the two races sought different paths, yet during the peaceful age before Ruin’s appearance, they exchanged ideas and developed in their own ways.
But after Ruin emerged, the two races were forced to part completely.
*The Black Lion Clan hid themselves in the barren southern lands, all for the sake of completing an ultimate that would surpass Ruin…*
They confined themselves, lashed themselves onward, and devoted everything solely to achieving that ultimate state.
Because they were convinced that Ruin itself had not appeared in a completed form from the very beginning.
Thus, in order to fulfill their long-cherished wish, the Black Lion Clan analyzed and dissected countless races, and in the process discovered the key known as *Hidden Traits*.
This was why the Black King possessed numerous Hidden Traits and the authority to bestow them upon other monsters.
Then, three hundred years ago, when an Evil God appeared, the White Tiger Clan created *Extinction King Mork* and attacked the Black Lion Clan.
As a result, the Black Lion Clan was annihilated, and only the Black King survived.
—Black Lion Clan. I hear you joined hands with an Evil God and kidnapped children of many races to offer them as sacrifices?
—Biological experiments? How far have you fallen?
—Filthy Black Lion scum. Die, all of you!
It was a cursed affair.
The White Tiger Clan was convinced that the Black Lion Clan was an evil group colluding with an Evil God.
The Black King, who was but a cub at the time, remembered that scene vividly.
That grotesque war soaked in blood and flesh.
All the White Tiger Clan needed was a justification to attack the Black Lion Clan.
Ironically, however, the White Tiger Clan itself suffered near-annihilation at the hands of *Extinction King Mork*.
And so three hundred years passed.
*Three hundred years. I have waited for this day for three hundred years.*
For three centuries, the Black King honed the essence of the Black Lion Clan.
He mastered all the knowledge, treasures, and clues regarding the ‘keys’ left behind by his people.
What was interesting was that the Black Lion Clan had already been exchanging knowledge about *biological cloning* with the Arhon Empire.
They used that knowledge solely to awaken the Emperor.
But the Black Lion Clan had been devoting themselves to forging the bodies of the progenitors of Hidden Traits—races that had sunk into the Abyss.
They firmly believed that by combining all of them into one, they could complete an ‘ultimate’ that surpassed Ruin.
Thus, the Black King conducted experiments upon his own body, accepting all those keys into himself.
*I directly accepted the cells of countless species into my body. In contrast, that White King’s conduct…*
As a result, numerous Hidden Traits were awakened.
He could inject them into monsters under the name of ‘Grace,’ giving birth to things like the Ant King pheromone and those *Black Beasts*.
The White King had never been his equal.
He could never have been.
When he heard that the White King had sired offspring and lost his fangs, it was laughable beyond disappointment.
That was why the Black King never aggressively invaded the north.
He was confident that revenge could be taken whenever he wished.
*But it wasn’t enough. It was far from completing the ultimate. With only the keys I possessed, I could not reach Ruin.*
So he turned his gaze and began searching for the remaining *Four Calamities*.
Even awakening just one—*Despair*—had been enough to make his power tremble with awe.
If, through the keys, he made all the Four Calamities his own—
…then he would finally surpass Ruin.
And in this labyrinth, he found and devoured Baal, one of the Four Calamities.
Thus, he had gathered the power of two of them.
But it did not end there.
The being now standing before him—
“Golden Mask… Do you truly think a mere clone can properly wield the power of Ruin?”
The Black King sneered.
He had recognized at a glance that the Golden Mask was someone’s clone.
No—he had already known.
Because—
“There was a fundamental flaw in your design from the start. The factor of the Doppelgänger Lord was strongly fused within you. That is why your identity is so unstable.”
The Black King knew the entire story behind the Golden Mask’s creation.
The Empire’s ‘human cloning’ had originally begun with Black Lion Clan knowledge.
Naturally, in a desperate situation, it was only logical that they would seek the Black King’s counsel.
They wanted a powerful successor, so he had merely given advice accordingly.
The Doppelgänger Lord.
An Abyssal monster that lives by copying others, a supreme existence at the very top.
He had told them to try adding its cells.
He had even gifted them some.
The Black Lion Clan had already restored extinct races using the Doppelgänger Lord’s cells and conducted countless experiments.
They had reached the point where further experimentation was meaningless, so he had shared them without hesitation.
“You formed the Reaper Cult and carried out ‘Original Hunts’ because of that inherent hatred, didn’t you? Do you finally feel like your true self now?”
The Black King’s smile deepened.
Doppelgängers instinctively harbor hatred toward the beings they copy.
And with the cells of the Doppelgänger Lord—an Abyss King, said to be ‘the Abyss itself’—fused into him, that hatred must have been beyond description.
Still… he had never imagined that a mere clone would call forth the power of Ruin.
That what the Arhon Empire sought to complete was Ruin itself.
Whether they did so knowingly or by coincidence, he could not say.
*At this level of completion, coincidence is impossible.*
…No.
The Black King denied it inwardly.
There could be no coincidence in calling forth the power of Ruin.
It had been planned from the beginning.
Someone had intervened so that this fake could summon the power of Ruin.
“Even so, you are nothing but a fake.”
Whooom!
Behind the Black King, countless *Hands of Despair* sprouted like wings.
At that moment, the *Black Beasts* under his control surged forward, attacking the Golden Mask like a tidal wave.
Among them was *Extinction King Mork*.
*The Black Lion Clan is superior to the White Tiger Clan.*
I will prove it here.
The *Extinction King Mork* once wielded by the White King was weaker than the one that annihilated the Black Lion Clan three hundred years ago.
But the *Extinction King Mork* now controlled by the Black King had evolved even further.
Guaaaaaaah!
With a savage roar, Extinction King Mork leapt.
As it thrust out its fist as if to split heaven and earth, the thickness of its arm expanded a hundredfold in an instant.
Then, with a deafening shockwave, it struck at the Golden Mask—
Bzzzzzz!
A transparent wall appeared directly above the Golden Mask.
A wall sturdy enough to block even the enhanced Extinction King Mork’s attack.
Gloop!
Gloop!
In that instant, the *Black Beasts* connected to Extinction King Mork and began to be absorbed.
Extinction King Mork’s body gradually swelled.
Crack!
Even the unbelievably solid transparent wall soon began to fracture.
No matter how much power of Ruin he had called forth, the Golden Mask was not Ruin itself.
In the end, he would be reduced to dust by Extinction King Mork.
“This is ultimate evolution.”
Evolution is akin to creating solitude.
Putting countless insects into a jar, forcing them to compete until only one remains.
Likewise, the *Black Beasts* and *Extinction King Mork* were not merging—they were competing.
The strong devoured the weak again and again, and what emerged was the ‘ultimate’ spoken of by the Black Lion Clan.
Endless competition.
The elimination of the weak and the survival of the strongest!
That the White King could not defeat the Black King was, in a sense, inevitable.
The Black King had proven it countless times with his own body.
The progenitors who had created the keys and vanished—
He had repeatedly cloned their races and cells using the proliferating cells of the Doppelgänger Lord and implanted them into himself.
Again and again.
For three hundred years.
And the result was now proven.
“I am… the strongest.”
KWA—AAAAAANG!
*
*
The labyrinth shakes.
The mana flowing through it has already surpassed manageable levels.
Yet at the very center of the labyrinth, there was no room to care about such a battle.
“……”
“……”
Everyone had their eyes closed.
Phantom’s avatars.
*This is… a dream…*
The *Thunder Lion* realized he was dreaming.
Specifically, Phantom’s dream.
While Phantom was perfecting their ‘survivals’ and erasing his regrets,
They, too, were accomplishing objectives tied to Phantom’s own ‘survival.’
The God of Dreams, Hypnos.
With all his remaining strength, he had guided them into Phantom’s dream.
Then what, exactly, was this dream about?
“We are heading to the Demon Realm!”
“For the peace of Pangaenia!”
“For the prosperity of humanity!”
“Waaaaah—!”
Burning cheers.
It was the *Grand Expedition*.
All of Phantom’s avatars began dreaming of the Grand Expedition.
Because among all things tied to Phantom’s survival—
The Grand Expedition was the one that carried his greatest regret.
“Sir Wilhelm! Get out of the way!”
“Aaaagh!”
“T-the wraiths are endlessly rising from the ground!”
“Save me!”
The First Lord of the Demon Realm, Ahram the King of the Dead.
He endlessly summoned the undead.
The undead that rose from the ground toyed with soldiers and knights alike.
And the Thunder Lion found himself—
*In Wilhelm’s body.*
He had become Wilhelm.
The overwhelmingly powerful Knight King.
And yet—
—Game Over.
He died without being able to do anything to Ahram, the King of the Dead.
Was it because Ahram was too strong?
That was part of it—but not the whole reason.
*From the very start, half of them ran away.*
Insane.
It had been a bold beginning to the Grand Expedition.
With numbers and scale like this, success seemed possible.
But the moment they entered the Demon Realm, half the soldiers fled.
…No matter how he thought about it, something was wrong.
“We are heading to the Demon Realm!”
“For the peace of Pangaenia!”
“For the prosperity of humanity!”
“Waaaaah—!”
The dream repeated.
This time, the Thunder Lion methodically worked to conquer Ahram.
Just as he was pressing forward head-on and gradually gaining the upper hand—
Thud!
“Ghk—!”
—Game Over.
Stabbed in the back by a sudden ambush, he died before he could even react.
Just before the game ended, he turned his head—
*What… is this…?*
What he saw was the face of a fellow knight.
A knight he had trusted as an ally without doubt.
*Retry.*
The Thunder Lion continued to retry.
After a grueling hundred attempts, he finally managed to kill Ahram, the King of the Dead.
The biggest problem was the endless betrayals.
He had no idea whom he could trust.
…A chill ran down his spine.
In this situation, had Phantom cleared the entire Demon Realm in a single run?
With only one chance?
*Second Lord Issera. Mutant Dragon God.*
He needed to find a weakness.
But even gathering all his knowledge, finding Issera’s weakness was harder than plucking a star from the sky.
The difficulty was utterly insane.
And as if that weren’t enough, traitors would strike from behind whenever he let his guard down.
They interfered while pretending to be allies, and the demons of the Demon Realm seemed to know the Knight King inside and out.
*Retry.*
*Retry.*
*Retry…!*
The Thunder Lion kept trying.
If a hundred attempts weren’t enough, then a thousand.
If a thousand weren’t enough, then ten thousand.
And at last, he reached a conclusion.
*…It’s impossible.*
Reaching the Demon King is impossible.
His own ability was far too insufficient.
And succeeding in this in a single attempt was beyond imagination.
No matter how many people they had, no matter how infinite the retries were—
*This… has to be cleared? Only then will Phantom awaken…?*
The Thunder Lion couldn’t bring himself to believe it.
Completing Phantom’s *survival quest*.
