Sovereign of Judgment Chapter 205:
Episode 12: Final Episode / Chapter 205: Closing (End)
TL: emptycube / ED: Obelisk
The fog was dyed black, and even this black fog was devoured by his sword and disappeared .
The world kept getting smaller and smaller following the path of ‘Choi Hyuk’s Denial’ which devoured even space itself .
Soon, the blade was devoured by denial and the perceivable world disappeared .
This world where one’s sacrifice was ‘inevitable’ . Yet, this same **** world repeatedly asked, ‘Why are you doing this?’ after doing so . Directed at this world, Choi Hyuk’s Denial completely extracted his soul and shot it out as though he was ascending into the heavens .
Killing everyone . Devouring everything .
Only ‘denial’ was left as it pointed at the remaining universe and roared .
“Yeah, yeah, eat that . ”
Choi Hyuk said as if he was coaxing a beast as he continued to swing his sword, of which only a handle remained .
The monster queen’s desire for life, which had become a universe onto itself after consuming countless of others, was devoured like a slender deer as it was denied .
Splash!
Choi Hyuk fell into the lake .
{…Ahh!}
{Heuu… How…}
{Kuaaah!}
…
…
When he woke up after fainting for a moment, the still living monster queen was going insane . Its divine appearance had disappeared without a trace, and instead, a wrinkly, furless beast was rolling in the lake shrieking .
{Aahhhh… . How can this be! Ridiculous . For a regular lifeform that isn’t even a demise-ranked monster to possess such power… So this is my fate… No! What am I saying! I’m not dead! I won’t dieeee!!}
This was what its telepathic messages meant if he were to translate it .
The monster queen, who had waited for an intense battle against Choi Hyuk, found it unfair that it had fallen from one sword strike . No, was this retribution?
{It’s fair… For what I stole to be stolen from me… What has to come to end must end for new life to be born… I know that but…
{I was aware of it! Your sickening fate! I refuse! Forever! I’ll… probably never be able to steal it from you, right? Euaahhh! What am I saying?}
The monster queen resisted and resisted but couldn’t overcome Choi Hyuk’s Denial in the end . Her long-time desire for life disappeared after being denied, and having lost that desire, she began to die as predicted on her birth .
“Really… You suffered a lot . Now rest . ”
Exhausted, Choi Hyuk lay down in the middle of the lake as he saw the entire process .
{I don’t know . I don’t know… But for this to be the end, I’ll accept it . Yeah, so you were my end . }
The monster queen, who had revealed her fiendish obsession with her hideous body, seemed to have now given up as she writhed, submerged in the lake . The red eyes on her back looked exhausted as they closed like those of someone dying of old age .
She slowly submerged into the lake when, at the last moment, she suddenly raised her head and stared at Choi Hyuk . Even as her chin, nose, and the top of her head submerged in the lake, she ridiculed him in her pitiful appearance .
{My end… Ha! Poor fellow . Your brilliantly shining soul is going to die with me… Still, since my life was long and yours was short… I win…}
“What’s this dead person saying?”
Choi Hyuk clicked his tongue . Though, after he said that, his mouth felt bitter for some reason .
{…}
Thuud!
The moment the monster queen ceased to exist, the universe became frenzied . The various fates she had devoured from other dimensions began to explode . The universe was collapsing .
Choi Hyuk barely managed to open his eyes and look to where Bae Jinman and Baek Seoin were before dropping his head .
Although he knew they had yet to escape, he wasn’t worried . For some reason, he instinctively understood what was going on right now .
From the beginning, the fates that filled this universe were all from different worlds and were different in kind . When the monster queen, who mediated these fates, disappeared, the universe lost its laws and order . The released fates crashed into each other, attempting to assert their own nature, but none of the fates gave up on this universe . Although they had come from different worlds, they now wanted to acknowledge this one as their own .
“They are fighting on such a grand scale . ”
The shaking would continue until these fates acknowledged each other’s existence and found their place, meaning until new laws and order gained control over this universe . Also, it would spit out the fates from other worlds that had no intention of participating in this struggle . The warriors would return to where they came from .
That was why Choi Hyuk relaxed as he watched the battle of titans . He didn’t even have the strength to lift a single finger anyways .
The karma of denial had completely consumed him now . His body was disappearing from the inside . He no longer had the strength or will to sustain himself .
Watching the collapsing universe as he died was more emotional than he thought .
Becoming teary, memories flashed through his mind like a kaleidoscope .
His childhood and the first time he killed a person . The searing pain he felt when he saw his mother’s tears . Also, the days he spent acting like a fool . Still, the time he spent with his mother was his hearth . Even as a child, his mother looked unfortunate and weak to him . She smiled and told him it was okay and cried alone at night . When he pestered his mother to buy him something, she felt even more tormented than him .
Yes, his dream was to be an architect then . Influenced by his mother, who was a designer, he wanted to become someone who created . Though he was now the best destroyer in the universe .
However, in the end, all he truly wanted was to protect his mother, who had lived honorably without any sins like Superman . Despite only being a normal person, she had always bought Choi Hyuk the items he pestered her for after a month of asking and cried the next night, and had suffered through a lot of hardship as a single mother .
He recalled the teasing writing on the gymnasium window he had kicked while frightened and concerned for his mother .
Yes, get angry .
And angrier .
Kill .
Only then can you kill .
Even thinking about it now…
“Ah, **** **** . Yeah, and that’s how I killed all of you . ”
Choi Hyuk laughed manically .
He had killed everyone . The Exalted **** and the monster **** . He had killed every last one of them and inflicted unforgettable wounds .
He felt refreshed and then sorrowful . He felt sorrowful now .
He recalled Jung Minji . She was the only woman who shined in his grey world besides his mother . He recalled the emotions squirming in his stomach when he heard she died like trash .
He didn’t know he was sad then since rage consumed him . He felt sorrowful only now . He had only been a high schooler .
He recalled Chu Youngjin, Richard, Zero, Alexei, and the mountain of corpses he had killed . When he thought about how his mother, Jung Minji, Chu Youngjin and the others precious to him might be pitifully thrown in that pile, he felt sorrowful again .
He felt sad about the potential that they and perhaps he himself might have had .
Choi Hyuk would now lie in the mountain of corpses he had piled up .
He felt vexed as he recalled how the monster queen had said, ‘I win… . ’
Damn it, those **** **** .
One person’s life could be more important than the entire universe to someone…
Whether it was a human or an alien, why couldn’t they understand this through words…?
That was why Choi Hyuk made them understand .
While setting himself on fire in the process .
“Alexei… Was his nickname Lyosha? Now that I think about it, he was quite an amiable guy . ”
He had always followed Lee Jinhee around .
“Well, you’re better than me since you protected the person you wanted to protect . That’s better than revenge . ”
If you were going to set yourself on fire anyways .
The universe was now shrinking . Spitting out all the different fates, it gathered only those that it would include . The world which couldn’t exist without laws stopped functioning and closed down . The endlessly shrinking universe became a single egg, and the fates inside it mixed together and became one .
The fates shaking inside the egg couldn’t decide on a criterion . They drifted before burrowing into Choi Hyuk’s body . Under the waterfall of fates, even his fate of denial was swept away and dispersed . While he stopped ceasing to exist for now, there wasn’t a fundamental difference from his previous state .
He would soon forget his memories and even the fact that he was Choi Hyuk and would melt and disappear in this universe .
Sensing his impending death, Choi Hyuk lay down and thought about the funeral .
How Lee Jinhee firmly said that they had to do it when he found out about his mother’s death in Marronier Park . The magical moment when awakenees who had lost hope and ostracized each other began comforting each other .
The warmth of Lee Jinhee’s hand when she held his .
It might have been then .
The moment when Choi Hyuk’s rage, which surged without a target, decided on the 13 Exalted Wings . The moment he hoped for the regeneration of the rest of the world after the demise rather than mutual destruction . The moment a crack opened up wide enough for him to open his heart to Flame-Rain . Although he didn’t know about the Exalted Wings or Flame-Rain, it was that day . It was all thanks to the strange funeral on that day .
Thank you .
Choi Hyuk mumbled then forgot that memory .
Everything was being swept away and disappearing into the darkness .
While he couldn’t remember it well, he thought that he had lived a not-so-bad life .
He was happy to have met everyone .
If there was another life, he hoped to meet them again .
While mumbling this, he forgot about who he wanted to meet . He didn’t even have time to think about whether they wanted to meet him again or not .
…
He could no longer remember anything .
Only thoughts like ‘I did it’ and ‘I did enough’ floated in his mind .
No, that was what he thought, but for some reason, he clearly recalled a girl as though she had been engraved into his cornea . The girl’s hair would sometimes be long and, at other times, short . She had flames blazing splendidly in the air . She overcame all misfortunes and had stars in her eyes . A ‘glory’ that brilliantly bloomed within the ‘denial’ that had wiped everything to nothingness .
Though he forgot her name, he could be at ease because of her .
It was because he knew she would be able to regenerate the shattered world .
With a glory that would never extinguish .
When he thought about her, rather than feeling sad or being filled with regret…
He felt at peace .
Perhaps, his endlessly burning rage was now looking for a place to rest while recalling a certain glory .
Sensing the swirling fates sweeping his last remaining bit of consciousness away, he closed his eyes .
He turned his body to the side and curled up . He fell asleep .
And didn’t wake up .
As expected, was life a mosaic of mismatched fragments? One where you didn’t know what would be added next .
Even Choi Hyuk, who felt sorrowful as he lay atop a mountain of corpses, curled up peacefully like a child in the next moment .
Even the monsters’ universe, which devoured worlds, reverted into an egg and prepared for a new beginning .
As though all the desperation was an illusion, the entire universe suddenly became peaceful .
Etching a new life .
Waking up the next day, people realized…
That there was no longer an alliance or monsters .
None .
-Sovereign of Judgment End-
**
An emptiness without a sky or ground .
In a place with nothing, a woman’s voice rang out .
Choi Hyuk, Choi Hyuk, can you hear me?
Of course, there was no reply .
Was it not time yet…?
I’ll come back . Stay well .
{TL/N: 4 Epilogues + Afterword will be released tmw!}