Evading the Hero’s Party with Full Effort

Chapter 47

Ch.47 Again?! That bastard?! Just you wait—if I catch him, I’ll chew him alive!  

“Are you ready?”  

“Yes, I’m ready.”  

At my reply, Aria beside me broke into a wide grin.  

“I’m all set too, Mom!”  

I wasn’t sure why Aria was tagging along, but Icira nodded and flicked her finger lightly—immediately, the surrounding scenery shifted rapidly.  

Warm sunlight and cool breezes filtered through gaps between buildings.  

Massive granite structures, interspersed with patches of greenery, bathed in brilliant sunlight—it resembled a masterpiece painting.  

As I stood there, momentarily entranced…  

“Icira and young Hatchling. It’s been quite some time.”  

An old man’s voice reached my ears.  

“My Lord, it truly has been ages.”  

“Hello, Grandfather!”  

The elderly man appeared to be around eighty.  

He nodded slowly.  

“So you’re the human who wishes to see the murals in my chamber?”  

I bowed slightly toward the elder.  

“Pleased to meet you. My name is Hans.”  

“Ah, I’ve heard much about you. I am Auros Auripex.”  

This was Auros—the golden dragon, final boss of ‘Dragon War’.  

“I appreciate your generosity in granting my request, despite how presumptuous it might have seemed.”  

Bowing respectfully to Auros, I spoke sincerely. He smiled gently and shook his head.  

“To repay you for saving our precious Hatchling, merely showing you my chamber seems far too cheap a price—we’re the ones embarrassed.”  

“Not at all. Your chamber belongs to the Dragon Lord, guardian of all creation. I’m the one who should apologize for troubling you.”  

“How kind of you to say so. But our Hatchling has grown quite a bit since last I saw her—has it been fifty years?”  

“Grandfather Auros, have you been well?”  

Aria’s adorable bow made my heart melt.  

How could anyone resist her chubby cheeks and tiny gestures?  

“Yes, I’ve been well. Now, Hans—was it? Let’s go see it right away.”  

Auros turned and walked down the inner corridor.  

I followed, marveling at the lair’s walls.  

Ancient frescoes, carved long ago, depicted magnificent dragons battling monstrous creatures—presumably demons.  

“Do you know how this world came to be?”  

Having played ‘Destiny’ for so long, I knew the lore well.  

“I understand it was created by the gods.”  

“Indeed. Humans have faithfully preserved and passed down what the gods taught them through generations. But isn’t there one thing you wonder? Why would gods who love their creations bestow death upon them?”  

Originally, the gods had not granted death to their creations.  

But this truth was known only to those who’d seen the ending of ‘Dragon War’.

Should I speak honestly?  

If I claimed ignorance, I wouldn’t have to explain how I knew.  

Deciding to play it safe, I answered cautiously:  

“I don’t know much about that.”  

Auros nodded, as if expecting that reply.  

“Of course. What lies ahead concerns the gods’ transgressions and the world’s deepest secrets.”  

I already knew the story by heart.  

Why death entered the ‘Destiny’ world wasn’t complicated:  

The gods each created beings in their own image and blessed them.  

When these creations began worshiping the gods, the gods were pleased—except for the Formless God, who had no form to be worshiped.  

Resentful of the other gods and their creations, the Formless God cursed them all.  

That curse was death.  

Death shocked the gods deeply, and they ultimately imprisoned and sealed away the Formless God.  

That was precisely what the stone tablet we were about to see recorded.  

And the core plot of the DLC ‘King of the Dead’ revolved around the Formless God’s return.  

Thus, the main story of the game was to prevent this evil deity from bringing death to all creation.  

“You’ll understand better by reading the tablet yourself. After all, you’re an archaeologist.”  

With that, Auros pushed open a massive door.  

Inside, an enormous stone tablet was affixed to the wall.  

Seeing it in person, I realized just how colossal it truly was.  

I walked slowly toward the pristine white stone, examining the intricate carvings and script.  

Now I’d finally know—was this world merely a game, or reality?  

I’d come here for one reason only:  

The Test Room.  

The tablet depicted El, the Light God—the patron deity of this realm.  

Pressing that spot would suck me into the Test Room.  

If the Test Room existed, this world could only be the game.  

Such a place couldn’t possibly exist in reality.  

Even in a world with magic, summoning Demon Kings or dragons, or forging a hundred Holy Swords—those were absurd impossibilities.  

But if this truly was the game… how had I gotten here?  

Lost in deepening thoughts, I soon found the section depicting El.  

“Huuu…”  

My hands trembled.  

This moment would reveal whether the world I’d lived in for so long was real or virtual.  

Bracing myself, I pushed firmly against El’s image on the tablet…  

—Thud! Thud!  

Only the hard, cold feel of stone met my palms.  

“Huh?”  

So… this was reality after all?  

I’d considered that possibility—everything here felt too vivid to be just a game.  

Yet the ‘Destiny’ characters moved with uncanny, almost AI-like precision, leaving me half-convinced it wasn’t real.  

Suddenly, an eerie sense of dissonance washed over me.  

“What’s this?”  

Aria, Icira, and Auros had frozen mid-motion.  

Time itself seemed to have stopped—an unnatural phenomenon that startled me.  

—Is it you? The human who crossed over from another world?  

A voice—not heard, but felt—spoke directly into my mind.  

“Who are you?”  

—Fear not. I am the Primordial One, parent to all.  

The genderless, neutral tone left me bewildered.  

Parent to all? That could only mean a god.  

“Are you a god?”  

—Time grows short. His seal is breaking.  

The entity ignored my question.  

This disjointed exchange confused me.  

—Stop him. Protect my children. That is your duty.  

“Him? What do you—”  

—You will understand everything when we meet again.  

In that instant, the dissonance vanished.  

What… what just happened?  

Still reeling from the inexplicable event, I looked around—  

“If you have questions, just ask me.”  

Auros’s voice broke the silence.  

“What… was that?”  

Panicked, I touched the tablet again—but nothing changed.  

***  

A scorched field, reduced to ash.  

Not long ago, this vast plain had shimmered with golden wheat.  

Now, only barren soot remained.  

There, a petite red-haired woman faced off against heavily armored soldiers.  

To an outsider, it might seem the soldiers were persecuting an innocent woman—but the opposite was true.  

The soldiers trembled in fear, while the woman stood calm and composed—a stark contrast.  

“W-witch! Face divine judgment!”  

Though the soldiers shouted with shaking voices, the woman merely smiled, amused.  

“Divine judgment? Don’t you know the gods despise slavery?”  

“Shut your mouth! Have you forgotten the atrocities you’ve committed upon this land?”  

Leah had appeared here about a week ago.  

She’d materialized suddenly, then unleashed magic wildly, burning everything around her—and freed all the enslaved people en masse.  

Slave owners, unable to tolerate this, had begged nearby cities for help.  

The city had already sent troops three times—but failed to stop her each time.  

“All I did was free slaves—exactly as your so-called divine judgment demands.”  

Arrogantly, the petite woman claimed she’d acted in accordance with divine will.  

And she wasn’t wrong—after all, even Cecilia, the saint famed for understanding the gods’ will best, had done the same.  

Leah smiled sweetly, then pulled a staff from thin air.  

“Leave now, and you won’t get hurt.”  

The soldiers shuddered at her warning.  

Truthfully, they wanted to retreat—but disobeying orders meant punishment, so they gritted their teeth, raised their spears, and glared at her.  

“J-just shut up! Surrender peacefully, and you won’t get hurt!”  

“Flare.”  

At her incantation, blinding light engulfed the area.  

When it faded, the soldiers were charred black—unrecognizable.  

“Now that the slaves are free…”  

She gazed eastward.  

Since arriving here, Leah had heard rumors while freeing slaves—about her friends waging fierce war against cities that supported slavery.  

Then, suddenly, she recalled the war against the Demon King.  

“You really never change.”  

Though not a fond memory, she desperately wanted to destroy something deep inside herself.  

After all, Leah was channeling her grief and rage over losing her master into pure destruction.  

‘I never thought I’d miss war again.’  

Once hated, war now seemed perfect for Leah—who just wanted to smash everything.  

A battlefield—where blood and screams never ceased—was exactly where she needed to vent her fury.  

So Leah headed east, eager to reunite with old friends and lend them aid.  

***  

“How is this possible?! How could he know the hidden location of the Goddess’s power?!”  

Selena, who’d recently failed to recover the Goddess’s Wedding Ring, looked terrible.  

Her eyes were swollen from crying all night, her skin pale and dull, her black hair dry and frizzy.  

Selena had spent her entire life deciphering the Prophecy Scroll.  

Only recently had she finally decoded the location where the ‘divine power’ slumbered.  

Thus, her organization—despite her being barely twenty—had granted her a high rank and ordered her to retrieve it.  

Until recently, she’d been confident she’d succeed perfectly.  

—Knock knock.  

Selena, now sharp-tempered from repeated mission failures, snapped:  

“Who is it?!”  

[Miss Selena. It’s Alex. We’ve found the one who took the Goddess’s Wedding Ring.]  

‘Finally found that cursed bastard?’  

If he stood before her now, she’d chew him alive—such was her fury.  

—Creak.  

The door opened, and Alex entered with an awkward expression.  

Seeing Selena’s face, he frowned with concern.  

“Miss… are you alright? What happened to your face?”  

Selena deliberately ignored Alex’s mix of pity and worry.  

“Who is it? Who took it?”  

Alex sighed at her urgent tone.  

“A man named Hans, Baron of Pisa.”  

“What?! Him again?! How does he even know about it?!”  

Realizing she’d been robbed twice by the same person, Selena’s shoulders began to shake.  

Tears welled in her beautiful crimson eyes.  

“Again?! That bastard?! Just you wait—if I catch him, I’ll chew him alive!”  

Her voice echoed hollowly through the room. 

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