From Today, I'm a Player

Chapter 267. The End of a Tragedy Pt. 3

Lee Jun-Kyeong walked forward, stepping on the corpses of giants. Gehenna was vast. But, for some reason, he seemed to know where to go. It was as if he was attracted to something.

In the meantime, Lee Jun-Kyeong calmly walked forward, step by step.

“The pressure is slowly disappearing.”

It had originally been difficult for him even to breathe due to the mana emanating from the corpses of the Sponsors. However, from some point on, Lee Jun-Kyeong had begun to feel the pressure disappear. Upon inspection with his mana, there didn’t seem to be any changes to the mana emanating from the giants’ corpses.

That meant something else must have changed.

‘Is it me?’

The resulting change seemed truly worthy of the word evolution. His evolved body seemed to have adapted to Gehenna's harsh environment. Because of that, Lee Jun-Kyeong was becoming stronger.

Thrum.

Since it was such a quick and drastic change, he wondered if it was because of a power he had gained after becoming Ragnarok. It was either that, or he might have been growing by accepting the energy of Gehenna.

“Is this also what the Demon King wanted?”

He felt as though even this was what the Demon King had wanted and planned. It was as if each moment was a stepping stone for his growth. Goosebumps covered Lee Jun-Kyeong’s arms. No, right now, he just had to focus on growing by using the plans that he had made.

Soon he would meet him. It was his intuition. The further he went, the more corpses of giants there were.

As he walked forward, he realized that there were more Sponsors than he had thought and that each Sponsor had different powers. Moreover, it seemed as though their size was proportional to their powers.

No matter how far he went forward, Lee Jun-Kyeong couldn’t see anything but the Sponsors.

‘This power…’

With each Sponsor, he tried to understand their powers. He tried to understand their true essence using the powers of the source, seeing if he could make use of them. Thus, he continued to go forward as he inspected each and every Sponsor.

It didn’t even seem as though a day had passed. However, time likely passed just as slowly in Gehenna as the time he had experienced in Andlangr.

Every step was filled with tension. Finally, Lee Jun-Kyeong stopped. Before him was the corpse of a Sponsor who seemed to have died not long ago. Lee Jun-Kyeong looked at the corpse, with blood dripping from its eyes and its chest cloven open. Hot blood was flowing from the dead giant.

BOOM!

When the giant fell, the ground shook as if there had been an earthquake. Before his eyes, right as the giant before him fell, Lee Jun-Kyeong saw a groaning giant standing there.

–Groughhh…

It was still alive. Lee Jun-Kyeong quickly drew Surtr’s Spear in hand. However, the giant standing before him seemed to be in even worse condition than the giant that had just fallen. Its skull was crushed, its head dented, the corners of its mouth were torn apart, and both of its arms were missing.

The moment Lee Jun-Kyeong was about to thrust Surtr forward, he heard a voice.

–It’s already dead.

It was a cold, steely voice, a voice that made his entire body freeze.

Because he heard the voice directly in his head, Lee Jun-Kyeong was able to find where the voice had come instantly from the new radiating mana.

“Ugh.”

It seemed as though his mana would explode instantly on contact with the mana of the voice. Lee Jun-Kyeong looked at the sky. Or, to be exact, at the chopped-off head of the giant. There, a figure sat.

“...”

Even with his evolved eyesight, he couldn’t see the figure clearly. Even with his mana, he could only feel their outline.

–So you’ve arrived.

He heard his voice again. With every word, the figure’s appearance became clearer. It was someone who was clearly different from that of the giants, almost like an ant in comparison. Just like he was.

The figure was clearly human. However, if Lee Jun-Kyeong just looked at the figure’s aura alone, it could be assumed that he was more than a human, more than a Sponsor. Lee Jun-Kyeong couldn’t be mistaken. He knew who he was.

The voice spoke again to him.

–Son of Heimdall and Athena.

“…!”

Lee Jun-Kyeong, who heard what he said, looked straight at him with a moment of disbelief. The figure’s face was now clearly visible. It was a face similar to his own. A voice rang in his ears, accompanying the gaze that was looking directly at him.

A system notification.

[ gazes upon you.]

***

“No! The mana…! The mana!!”

“My mana has disappeared…”

Heracles screamed while Odysseus’ voice was weak and feeble.

It was just the beginning.

“Cough, cough!!”

“Hyung! AGHK…!”

Liu Bei screamed and fell down from sudden exhaustion as his mana disappeared, and as Zhang Fei tried to support him, he, too, suddenly lost his mana. One by one, screams began to be heard.

"Just what…”

Athena burst into confusion at the sudden change in the situation.

“It’s begun,” Heimdall said as he followed her forward. “The Demon King’s slaying of the Sponsors.”

“Slaying of the Sponsors?”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Heimdall looked at everyone with a bitter gaze as he continued, “He’s going to kill all of the Sponsors. Only then would his tragedy come to an end.”

“Is that even…”

They were all stunned. Was it even possible to kill a Sponsor this easily? However, the scene they saw before their eyes was proof enough. The Sponsors were dying, even at this very moment.

“Seeing that even the Sponsors of those who had helped Jun-Kyeong are being dealt with, I guess most of them have already died.”

“...”

“You said that there were Hunters in Japan? Most of them had probably lost their powers.”

Some of the Hunters were beginning to lose their strength. But there was another problem.

“We have to go now, then!”

There would have been Hunters who hadn’t lost their strength yet. But, if they hadn’t lost their strength yet, there was a possibility that they would have gone mad in fear of losing their powers.

However, Heimdall said in a calm tone, “Don’t worry, isn’t Jormungandr there?”

“...”

The Hunters continued to scream as they fell. Finally, even Won-Hwa lost his mana and collapsed.

“Won-Hwa!!”

Heimdall said quietly with his eyes closed, “It looks like Jun-Kyeong and the Demon King have already encountered each other. Now that they’ve reached the end…”

He looked over at Gehenna. “We just have to wait.”

Athena's pupils widened even more as, at the same time, she suddenly caught Heimdall as he fell.

“Thank you…”

Even Heimdall’s mana was starting to drain from him.

***

‘ gazes upon me…?’

Lee Jun-Kyeong momentarily forgot about the Demon King’s words because of the system notification he had just heard. That had to have been…

‘Was that an accident…?’

No, he couldn’t deny it. This had clearly been hidden in Heimdall’s tale, and he himself had even expected it.

–That’s right.

The voice was heard again.

-I am your Sponsor.

His gaze was clear, and his voice steady.

–I am .

It was clearly the voice of the Demon King.

“The Sky of the Apocalypse is… You’re…” Lee Jun-Kyeong muttered blankly.

He had expected it, to be honest. Heimdall had said it.

‘He hid himself among the Sponsors. He gained even more power by absorbing the Sponsors.’

This was the reason why he had no choice but to keep going back through time.

‘He had wanted to raise a successor.’

A successor was almost like an Incarnation… The unspoken answer to Heimdall’s tale had always been in front of him. Moreover, Lee Jun-Kyeong realized it was always apparent just from the actions of the Sky of the Apocalypse.

It, no, he had shown actions that could be said to be completely different from the other Sponsors. He had been hostile to the Sponsors and had even killed them.

That wasn’t all. Lee Jun-Kyeong hadn’t received much support.

In addition, the sponsorship that he had received almost felt as though he had just found things that he had lost. Rather than growing into something from nothing, his growth was more like finding parts of himself that had been lost. Even the Familiars that were said to be the children of the Sky of the Apocalypse were the monsters that the Demon King had used as Familiars in the past.

“So that was why.”

But they, too, had become unique beings under the influence of the Demon King’s repeated regressions. The Familiars of the Demon King were the true faces of Fenrir and even Jormungandr.

This wasn’t something that Lee Jun-Kyeong hadn’t known. But, part of him always had that doubt.

[ gazes upon you.]

However, seeing it in person, none of it made sense. That person, who had been a human, was now no different from the Sponsors.

–How intelligent you are, Son of Heimdall.

Lee Jun-Kyeong suddenly came to his senses again. “Just what…what the hell does that mean…”

It was the first encounter with the Demon King that he had longed so much for, but Lee Jun-Kyeong was completely unable to properly process anything because of the endless questions that filled his mind.

A smile appeared on the lips of the Demon King, who was seated on the giant’s head.

–Wait for a moment.

The Demon King spoke, stretching out his hand.

–The Hunt isn’t over yet.

In a split second, searing flames began to spread out in a straight line.

“The First Flame…”

It was the skill that had been described as the Demon King’s signature skill. That was the very skill that he had imitated, which was currently spewing out from the Demon King’s hand. The light of flames pierced forward, exploding off somewhere.

BANG!

Lee Jun-Kyeong realized that one of the huge manas that he hadn’t even noticed had disappeared in a moment. It was a Sponsor that had been hiding somewhere from the blade of the Demon King, and it had just died.

Lee Jun-Kyeong felt his breathing become more and more difficult, burdened by the pressure of the destructive power of the First Flame unleashed by the Demon King and the further backlash of the mana of the Sponsor as it was destroyed. He had to calm down.

‘What a monster…’

At that moment, Lee Jun-Kyeong felt a glimpse of fear without even realizing it.

–So it seems you’re not fully complete yet.

A voice came to Lee Jun-Kyeong.

Thud.

He heard footsteps approach right next to him.

“How was it?”

The Demon King, who had been sitting on the giant’s head, landed next to Lee Jun-Kyeong in the blink of an eye.

It wasn’t some form of teleportation using mana. No, it was clear that speed was just his physical ability.

“Would you like to go hunting together?” The Demon King’s voice drifted into his ear as if the man was whispering. “If things continue like this, you’ll die without having done anything.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong didn’t know it was possible, but he suddenly got goosebumps all over his body. It sounded so much like his own voice.

“So, let’s go forth together, little nephew.”

BOOM!

Lee Jun-Kyeong felt the ground shake. When he looked to the side, the Demon King had already disappeared. He then looked up at the sky.

ROAR!

The second he did, the pale, blood-red moon disappeared, and before he knew it, a fiery sun was blazing, illuminating all of Gehenna.

In the midst of the blaze, the footsteps of giants echoed.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!