**Chapter 421. Vote for the Divine Throne**
—
*This is the worst.*
Park Tae-woo, the Chairman of the Korean Heroes’ Alliance.
His body was barely intact after fighting a brutal battle, yet he still raised his head to look at the sky.
Above the heavens—
“Haaahhh!”
“Hiiyaaaaah!”
Through crimson warps, countless **Primitive Spirits** continued to pour out.
There were five *red warps* formed in the skies over Korea. One of them had been miraculously destroyed, but—
“Potions! Do we have any more potions?!”
“To hell with potions! I don’t even have bandages left!”
“When the hell is the system going to be restored?!”
“What are the priests doing?!”
“Heal faster!”
“There are too many wounded!”
“Hey, you bastards! Do you think we’re praying by digging holes in the ground?!”
……It was absolute pandemonium.
An invasion that had begun simultaneously across the entire world.
Korea was isolated.
They couldn’t expect aid from other countries, and with the system halted, they couldn’t even purchase supplies like potions. It was the worst possible situation.
*Did we neglect developing support classes too much…?*
On top of that, there were far too few healers like priests.
Korea had focused on nurturing damage dealers—those capable of aggressively clearing towers and dungeons—rather than support roles.
As a result, balance had collapsed, and this hellish chaos had arrived.
Regret gnawed deeply at Park Tae-woo.
If only they had pursued more balanced growth, they wouldn’t be getting pushed back so miserably.
*At this rate, Seoul will fall.*
Park Tae-woo gripped his chipped sword.
He had cut down more than three hundred Primitive Spirits alone, but compared to the enemies flooding in, it was nothing.
Uncountable.
At a rough estimate, there were over 300,000.
And the number was still rapidly increasing.
They were giving everything they had, but they were nearing their limits.
……At this rate, Seoul would fall.
And if Seoul fell, the Alliance would fall. Beyond that, it would mean that every citizen of Korea would have to fend for themselves to survive.
So—even if it cost him his life, he could not give up Seoul.
“……There’s still no contact from the expedition force sent to the Black Dome?”
The last remaining hope.
The Black Dome expedition force, composed only of the strongest!
At Park Tae-woo’s words, a Alliance member who had been in constant communication with personnel near the Black Dome nodded.
“……Yes. There’s been no contact, and the Black Dome itself shows no response at all.”
“I see……”
Park Tae-woo slowly closed his eyes.
The Black Dome, which had formed after the Spirit Tower fell to Earth, was being explored by that expedition force. Yet even now, as the third invasion raged, there had been no word from them.
Korea had sent its finest elites—including Vice-Chairwoman Arin—creating a massive gap in its combat strength.
*If we’d known the third invasion would begin, we would never have sent anyone.*
But who could have known?
No one had predicted that the corruption rate would suddenly skyrocket.
Nor had anyone imagined that the system itself would be halted.
On the other hand—
When he opened his eyes again, he saw Primitive Spirits surging forward like a tidal wave.
The number of combat-capable personnel was barely around five thousand.
It was nowhere near enough.
And the real problem was that this was only the beginning.
*The Third lord, Mammon, hasn’t even appeared yet.*
…Where would he emerge from?
Please—anywhere but Korea.
It was selfish, but to Park Tae-woo, his own country—South Korea—mattered most.
Just then—
《The ‘Third lord Mammon’ has appeared!》
Text appeared before everyone’s eyes.
Thump! Thump!
Park Tae-woo’s heart began pounding like mad.
Everyone who saw the message must have felt the same.
Korea had no capacity left to deal with Mammon.
Even if they gave everything—risked their lives—they could barely hold back the Primitive Spirits.
《All ‘Primitive Spirits’ are strengthened!》
《Defeat the Third lord Mammon as quickly as possible. If Mammon remains alive as time passes, the Primitive Spirits will grow even stronger.》
《The probability of a ‘Primitive Spirit King’ appearing greatly increases.》
“Then… where did he appear?!”
“Check all directions!”
“What? They’re getting even stronger?!”
“……And it says they’ll keep getting stronger?”
Everyone widened their eyes and vigilantly scanned their surroundings.
But Mammon was nowhere to be seen.
Just as they were about to breathe a sigh of relief—
“M-Mammon has appeared in the Black Dome!”
One of the union members relaying information shouted.
The Black Dome.
A mass of pitch-black darkness formed in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.
If the Third lord Mammon had emerged there, then—
“What about the expedition force?! What happened to them?!”
“Wait—don’t tell me they were wiped out……”
“Then Vice-Chairwoman Arin too…?”
“No way! There were so many transcendents with them……!”
No matter how they thought about it, there was only one conclusion.
The expedition force had been annihilated.
They had failed to stop Mammon.
If even Earth’s strongest had been slaughtered, there were no options left.
Shadows fell over everyone’s eyes.
……Until another message appeared.
《The system has been restored.》
《All shops are now accessible.》
《The World Tree Community is now operating normally.》
With Mammon’s appearance, the frozen time began to move again.
Tremble!
Park Tae-woo’s body shook.
At the same time—
“Buy everything!”
“Potions first—now!”
“Each shop has limited stock! We have to buy faster than everyone else!”
Everyone rushed to empty the shops.
The Golden Scale Shop, the auction house—everything they could access.
They had to buy even one more item than the awakened of other nations.
However, their frantic actions soon turned into confusion.
“W-What?”
“Wait… did I see that wrong……?”
Another message appeared.
And it read—
《The ‘Third lord Mammon’ has been defeated.》
《Additional rewards will be distributed according to contribution in defeating the Third lord Mammon.》
《1st Place: Arin (100%)》
The moment they read those words—
Everyone erupted at once.
“The Vice-Chairwoman……!”
“She’s alive!”
“H-Hurray!”
“Hurray!!!”
Arin.
That was the name of the Vice-Chairwoman of the Korean Heroes’ Alliance.
A contribution rate of 100% meant she had defeated him alone.
Wasn’t that incredible?
It was hard to believe even while seeing it.
And if it was true, then Arin had risen as humanity’s great hero—the one who saved Earth.
It meant Korea’s status had once again shaken the world.
Soon—
“Haaah!”
The forms of the Primitive Spirits began to fade.
The invasion warps started closing, one by one.
At last, it was the sign that the third invasion was ending.
As everyone raised their arms to the sky and began to cheer—
《The ‘Hall of Myths’ has been added.》
《In the ‘Hall of Myths,’ rankings are recorded based on the total score obtained from the ‘Hall of Honor,’ combined with additional points from more transcendent and mythic achievements.》
《Reattempts of cleared main quests are now possible.》
《Enter the top 100 of the ‘Hall of Myths’ and ascend the ‘Tower of God.’》
《In the ‘Tower of God,’ you may select a candidate to become the god of the ‘Common Hall’ from among the constellations of the Common Hall.》
《Currently, constellations of the Common Hall must possess a large amount of ‘Complete Golden Scale’ to register themselves as candidates for the Common Hall’s god.》
《If the constellation voted for by one who ascends the ‘Tower of God’ is registered as the god of the Common Hall, that constellation will be elevated to a ‘Divine Throne,’ and the grade of its sponsorship will increase.》
《The current limit of sponsorship grades supported by the Common Hall is ‘Mythic Grade.’》
《Once Divine Throne sponsorship becomes possible, rewards of ‘Unique Grade’ or higher can be obtained.》
《The ‘Divine Throne Vote’ will take place 365 days from now.》
A new hall had been created.
The existing *Hall of Honor* recorded only main quest scores and rankings.
But the *Hall of Myths* would aggregate all main quest scores and add points from *mythic achievements* to determine rankings.
And if you placed your name there, you could even elevate the constellation that sponsored you into a god.
In other words—far greater authority and benefits.
*If I can elevate my sponsoring constellation to a Divine Throne… the difference in future growth will be enormous.*
An immeasurable difference.
The constellations themselves would strive to gather more supporters in order to ascend to the Divine Throne.
In this fierce competition, awakened ones would certainly benefit.
And since reattempts of main quests were now possible, the awakened would burn even hotter with rivalry.
*What rank am I?*
A natural curiosity.
The Hall of Myths rankings were calculated from all main quest scores recorded in the Hall of Honor.
And since *mythic achievements* also affected the rankings, there would likely be significant shifts.
People quickly checked the Hall of Myths.
【Hall of Myths】
1. Phantom (10 votes)
2. Randolph (9 votes)
3. Wilhelm (8 votes)
4. Arin (7 votes)
……
……
They saw the top three names.
……Phantom, Randolph, Wilhelm.
It meant each of them could exercise that many voting rights.
As ranks dropped, the number of votes decreased, and from 10th to 100th place, everyone uniformly received only *one vote*.
But something was strange.
“Phantom?”
“Being recorded separately as Phantom means……”
“But there’s no Phantom listed anywhere in the Hall of Honor, is there?”
Everyone who checked the Hall of Myths tilted their heads.
The Hall of Myths was supposed to aggregate all scores from the Hall of Honor.
Yet Phantom’s name did not exist anywhere in the Hall of Honor.
And yet—first place?
“Wasn’t Randolph Phantom?”
“Why are they recorded separately?”
“And he even beat Randolph for first……”
“Even the Vice-Chairwoman, who defeated Mammon alone, is only fourth……”
Question marks flooded everyone’s eyes.
Randolph and Wilhelm were famous, and had long fought over first and second place in the Hall of Honor, so that made sense.
Arin’s rank had surged due to defeating Mammon.
But Phantom was different.
Phantom’s name did not exist in the Hall of Honor at all.
Which meant—
“Does that mean he accomplished something even greater than what Randolph and Wilhelm achieved?”
“What kind of achievement could that be……?”
Everyone swallowed hard.
They couldn’t even begin to imagine it.
One thing was certain—the third invasion had ended.
Raising his chipped sword, Park Tae-woo declared in a short, powerful voice:
“……This is our victory.”
Humanity had won once more.
Once again, they would live to see tomorrow.
A single thick tear fell from the corner of Park Tae-woo’s eye—*plop!*—onto the ground.
*
*
Enormous pupils.
Countless *eyes* floating in the void.
They were so immense that all one could see were eyes.
But the moment I saw them, I knew who they were.
“So—you are the Dragon Gods of the Dragon God Council?”
There was no reply.
Only—
……
……
An unmistakable sense of displeasure.
Ignoring it, I held a single unconscious Blade Dragon God in both arms and declared to them:
“You will grant the qualification of Dragon God immediately. Otherwise, as of today, the ‘Dragon God Council’ will cease to exist.”
