Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 111: True Dragon (4)

Tearing through the cocoon and soaring upward, shadows burst outward from me, spreading rapidly and pushing away the blue webs.

I had become the Black Giant—though my form differed slightly from the one I’d seen in the vision.

The Black Giant in the vision was closer to liquid, but I... I resembled more of a gas, faint and shapeless yet vast.

But still, I was the Black Giant.

A being akin to the Outer Gods that came from beyond our world, from the Color Universe.

I could become one of ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) them.

Though unlike the Outer Gods of the vision, I possessed no Domain of my own.

The Black Giant was far more massive than I had expected.

Skyscrapers barely brushed against my knees—overwhelming, monstrous scale.

In the vision, I had merely thought, “That thing looks huge.”

But looking down on Babel from this vantage, the sensation was entirely different.

It was the very embodiment of a Giant.

Yet, strangely, there was no discomfort.

I moved naturally, effortlessly, as if I had always been this way.

As if I had been the Black Giant for countless eons.

When I tore free from the cocoon and rose, the blue webs reacted instantly.

Vines of sticky threads climbed my massive body, trying to entangle me once more.

But compared to before I became the Black Giant, their movements were far more aggressive, swift, persistent.

But I, too, was completely different now.

I reached out and gripped the threads scaling my body.

And ripped them apart.

The sound of tearing echoed as the webs squirmed in my hand.

They writhed like living creatures, trying to escape—but they could not break free from my grip, a grip that could now hold even time and space.

And then, I devoured them.

Just as the Black Giant had done in the vision.

Unfortunately, the webs had no taste whatsoever.

But with every bite, I could feel something building up inside me.

Not quite energy—not something I could wield directly—but still, undeniably, something accumulated.

If I had to name it... it was something more fundamental.

A kind of... Authority.

As I tore into the blue webs, devouring them, the threads immediately shifted strategy.

First, they halted their slow, creeping Corrosion.

Then, the webs covering all of Babel began to convulse like a single living organism, converging their focus entirely on me.

Millions—tens of millions—of strands surged toward me like a colossal wave.

A blue tsunami aimed to swallow the Black Giant whole.

But I smiled.

No, the Black Giant had no physical expressions, so technically, I couldn’t smile.

Yet, joy undeniably bloomed within me.

My "more complete foresight" made it clear—the webs were no longer a threat.

...!

I spread my arms wide. As though embracing, as though declaring I would accept everything.

And thus, the feast began.

I didn’t avoid the onrushing webs—I confronted them head-on.

My jaws opened wide, swallowing the webs whole.

With both hands, I grabbed fistfuls of the threads and tore into them.

At first, it seemed like the webs had the upper hand.

They surged faster than I could devour them, threatening to drown me beneath an endless ocean of silk.

But as time passed, the balance began to shift.

My body was changing.

At first, the webs corroded me rapidly upon contact...

But that corrosion slowed... then halted entirely.

It was the same adaptive ability the Black Giant possessed in the vision.

The more the webs attacked, the more resistant I became.

I hadn’t realized it watching the vision, but now—experiencing it firsthand—a memory surfaced.

The Adaptive Armor development project I’d seen back when I worked at MK Corporation, utilizing AI.

The Black Giant’s adaptation felt eerily similar to that technology.

The battle between the endlessly devouring Black Giant and the endlessly corroding webs was reaching its conclusion.

The webs intensified their assault.

Not just overwhelming numbers—now complex patterns, probing for weaknesses.

Sometimes sharp like spears, sometimes sprawling like nets, they struck.

But it was pointless.

I accepted every attack, chewed them apart, digested them.

With every strike, I adapted further.

And then... it happened.

The balance completely collapsed.

The webs’ assault visibly weakened.

The seemingly infinite quantity of threads was running dry.

The blue ocean that had engulfed all of Babel was receding.

It was only a matter of time now.

I kept devouring the webs.

Bite after bite.

But as I consumed them, something about the webs shifted.

The faint sensation of the Color Universe grew stronger.

As though the Color Universe itself was now within arm’s reach.

****

Deep underground beneath Jinlong Technologies headquarters.

Once-human figures hung upside down from the ceiling.

Their consciousnesses, fused with the webs long ago, had lost all individuality—but as a collective intelligence, they still reasoned clearly.

And they were terrified.

[Impossible...]

[A being that resists the Apocalypse...?]

The colossal black figure was devouring the webs relentlessly.

But it wasn’t merely eliminating threads—it was consuming the essence of the webs themselves.

It was devouring the very concept of Corrosion.

More shocking still was the Black Giant’s adaptive ability.

At first, the webs wounded it, but in time, they failed to affect it altogether.

As though it had been vaccinated—no, on a deeper, more fundamental level, it was neutralizing the webs entirely.

At this rate, the Black Giant would devour every last strand.

And that was an outcome the Jinlong operatives could not accept.

After all... those webs were their own flesh.

[The descent of the Apocalypse is near.]

[We just need more time.]

[A true unification.]

But the Outer God couldn’t yet descend onto Babel.

Whether by MK Corporation’s design or due to the spatial distortions from the Great Convergence, the twisted structure of space itself impeded the Outer God's arrival.

Like a labyrinth, deliberately complex.

The Jinlong operatives had been guiding the Outer God to this world's anchor-point, but even so, the descent took immense time.

Meanwhile, the Black Giant’s devouring accelerated.

More than half the webs covering Babel were already gone.

A critical, desperate moment.

The signal the Jinlong operatives had awaited arrived.

From the cosmos yawning open in the ceiling, from the sea of colors, an immense will descended.

It was not words—but raw, unfiltered will.

[Now... become one.]

A simple, absolute command.

Irresistible—a temptation they had no desire to resist.

The Jinlong operatives' bodies began to change.

Their forms, already merged with the webs, transformed on an even more fundamental level.

[Ah... at last...]

One by one, they dissolved into blue webs.

And with each sacrifice, the Color Universe and Babel drew closer together at an accelerating pace.

They were offerings.

Beacons guiding the Outer God to this world. Bridges across dimensions.

[Ah...]

But then, they realized something was wrong.

The unification—the promised oneness—was not the warm transcendence they had hoped for.

[This is...]

But it was too late.

The fusion could not be undone.

The will of the Outer God was absolute.

Their bodies and minds were already becoming part of the Outer God.

One by one, they melted, vanished.

The final Jinlong operative looked up toward the cosmic abyss above.

The Color Universe was now so close, he could almost touch it.

And beyond it... something vast was approaching Babel.

An Outer God of blue mist and webs.

Overwhelming in scale and presence.

An incomprehensible form, spanning impossible dimensions.

Beautiful—and horrific.

[No way...]

The last operative finally understood.

The true nature of the Outer God.

Not a being incapable of distinguishing good from evil—but a being for whom such concepts never existed.

Not ignorance of importance—but the belief that all things were equally meaningless.

To become one with such an existence... was utter foolishness.

[...]

But those words of regret were never spoken.

The last Jinlong operative vanished completely—and then, it happened.

BOOM!

With a colossal impact, the sky over Babel shattered.

Like a titanic gate thrown wide, reality’s veil tore apart, revealing the world beyond.

The Color Universe.

A place where physics did not exist.

Where time and space had no meaning.

And from that place—it descended.

The Outer God of blue mist and webs.

Vaster than the ocean.

More sprawling than mountain ranges.

A form incomprehensible—thousands of eyes, tens of thousands of writhing tendrils. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

It filled the entirety of Babel’s sky, slowly descending.

Jinlong Technologies’ headquarters had long since ceased to exist.

Obliterated under the overwhelming presence of the Outer God.

The sky was no longer the sky.

A grotesque scene where the Color Universe and reality melded into one.

Physics warped.

Causality unraveled.

The boundaries between existence and nothingness dissolved.

Thus, the end came to Babel.

The beginning of the foretold apocalypse—ever since MK Corporation created self-evolving AI.

But it wasn’t over yet.

The Black Giant still stood, towering above Babel.