Chapter 52. Night and Light

The holy land of the God of Chaos, Primordial Night.

Cale was currently on his way there.

-Now you’ll soon get everything you need.

At the Ancient Tree’s ominous words, Cale gave a slight nod.

Rustle—

Riding the wind swirling around his ankles, Cale moved through the jungle.

Sub Quest 1. [Seizing the Power of Chaos]

[Skill: Fear of Chaos (Inactive)]

[*You must go to the holy land of the God of Chaos to lift the deactivation. -View More-]

First, once he reached the holy land, he would soon be able to use Fear of Chaos, the saint’s power.

And once that happened, he would naturally be able to resolve one more thing right after.

‘Choi Jung Gun.’

Second, he could save Choi Jung Gun, who had been struck by corruption of chaos.

In the Demon Realm, the corruption of chaos was called one of the three calamities.

A way to purify it.

The Fire of Destruction and the water that devours the sky had said it.

Fire was familiar with purification, and water now knew chaos.

The two had demanded it.

-Just one bastard!

-Just once!

They wanted to face just one bastard who possessed the power of the God of Chaos.

They only needed one chance to try purifying corruption of chaos.

There was only one reason for that.

‘Because then they’ll understand the power of the God of Chaos.’

But Cale no longer needed to identify the power of the God of Chaos while dealing with the saint, nor did he need to learn more about the power called chaos.

‘Skill.’

Fear of Chaos, the power held by the saint of the God of Chaos.

Cale had become able to possess it as a skill through the game.

‘Once that happens—’

Then he could carry out the purification ritual for corruption of chaos using the information Team Leader Sui Khan had learned through the stone tablet.

Of course, the exact purification ritual should originally have been learned through the saint as well.

“Cale. Once we get to the holy land, you’re going to the order’s archive room first?”

Rustle—

Smoothly slipping past the leaves, the ancient dragon Eruhaben asked.

“Yes.”

“Is there something there about the purification ritual?”

“Yes. I saw it.”

Tap.

As Cale ran along the ground, Alberu, unlike Eruhaben, who moved lightly above them through the trees, dropped down beside him and voiced his doubt.

“You saw it? Didn’t the memories only give information related to the original quest?”

“That’s right.”

Up to now, Cale had faced believers of the God of Chaos and seen fragments of some of their memories, and based on that, he had made it this far.

“To get the skill, there are two things that have to be done in the holy land.”

“Yeah. I heard that.”

As he ran, Cale looked at the Sub Quest window.

[Go to the hidden place in the archive room and acquire the ‘Record of the Power of Chaos’.]

[Go to the Upside-Down Night and tear up the acquired record.]

“While looking through Duke Hinpa’s memories about the archive room, I confirmed that there was also a record there about the purification ritual.”

“Ah.”

Rosalyn, who had been listening in silence, let out a short exclamation as if her question had been answered.

‘It was something I happened to learn as a bonus.’

Duke Hinpa had shown the hidden place in the archive room.

And Cale had simply recorded in his head that there was also a document there about the purification ritual.

“I left traces.”

At that moment, Gashan of the Tiger Tribe reported in.

“With traces like this, the Wanderers will see them and follow.”

At Cale’s words, the Heavenly Demon opened his mouth.

“Didn’t you say the Wanderers roughly know where the holy land is? Then is there really any need to leave traces to this extent?”

“Yeah. The Wanderers probably won’t even be able to enter the holy land, much less find the entrance.”

Wanderer Cho and Ryeon. Judging especially by Cho’s temper, there was a high chance that, unable to contain his anger, he would start smashing everything from the surrounding area inward since he knew the location even if he did not know the entrance to the holy land. No, he definitely would.

Even so, Cale was firm.

“You can only get in through the entrance.”

Because of that, starting from the place where they had attacked Wanderer Cho and Ryeon earlier, Cale had Gashan leave traces.

‘Traces that someone had tried to erase, but that remained because of an unavoidable mistake.’

He had asked Gashan to leave traces that would give the other side exactly that impression, and the seasoned tiger had carried it out well.

Wanderer Ryeon had a cautious personality, but in the end, unable to find the entrance, she would suspect these traces and still follow them.

“Cale is right about this.”

Alberu looked straight ahead.

They had run through the jungle for quite a while.

“If the holy land really is where Cale said it is, even knowing that won’t make it easy to find.”

At that, Eruhaben spoke.

“Didn’t you say it was a canyon?”

“Yes. But you have to see it to understand.”

Alberu once again wrapped his body in wind magic.

“Let’s go.”

The Demon Realm’s field was enormous.

It was about the size of two or three ordinary kingdoms put together.

Tap.

Alberu lightly pushed off the ground.

Climbing back onto a tree branch, Alberu looked very much like the Dark Elves who moved through the trees.

“Ten more minutes.”

Among all of that, the jungle alone was so vast that it occupied nearly a quarter of the whole place.

Whooosh—

Cale followed after Alberu, and the rest of the group, no longer speaking, followed behind them as well.

Whoooosh—

The wind grew fiercer.

Cale gradually began to see the end of the jungle.

Giant trees, grass that had grown absurdly tall, a view blocked by all kinds of vines.

He felt the wind threading through all of it.

And the moment he followed that wind and reached the end—

Whoooosh—

They stepped out of the jungle.

“My.”

And Eruhaben let out a sigh.

“I had imagined somewhere like the Gorge of Death, but this is on another level.”

Whoooosh—

A fierce wind blew at them.

At the end of the jungle, there was a cliff.

Cale walked over and stood at the edge.

He looked down.

He could not see the bottom.

He raised his head.

He looked across.

“It’s far.”

It looked as though one would have to travel several kilometers to reach the land on the other side.

But to reach that land, one would first have to cross a drop that stretched for several kilometers.

Cale turned to the right.

“Incredible.”

He heard Eruhaben’s admiration.

‘A cross shape.’

The canyon, the precipice, cut the Demon Realm into four sections in the shape of a cross.

“The Death Precipice. That’s the name of this place.”

Rosalyn explained it to the others in detail.

“It has a similar name to the Gorge of Death, but this place is even more vicious.”

The bottom was invisible.

“Nothing that falls into this place ever returns alive. Even those who go to ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) look for them never come back.”

Those were the stories told about this place.

“This precipice with no visible end. Down there, the world after death unfolds.”

That was why not only the people of New World, but even those who lived in the Demon Realm, avoided this place.

“The fact that movement magic is impossible inside the Demon Realm feels especially inconvenient here, and the reason there are four entrances is also because this precipice divides the land into four.”

Rosalyn’s gaze turned to the center of the cross-shaped canyon.

To the one point where the two long precipices running vertically and horizontally met.

It was not far.

Cale’s group had deliberately come this way.

“Thankfully, there’s a bridge there, so moving around is at least a little less inconvenient.”

It was a strange bridge.

Four gigantic trees stood on each section of land, and the roots grown from those trees had become paths, forming a bridge that connected the space over the several-kilometer drop.

“I heard there are users who come here just to see this.”

New World.

This place had many fantastical locations that were hard to see in reality, and that bridge too, in that sense, was certainly a mysterious and magnificent sight.

“That bridge is called the Primordial Root.”

After saying that, Rosalyn looked at Cale.

So did the others.

She kept looking at Cale as she continued.

“The reason that bridge is special is that exactly twice a month, on the night of the full moon and on the night of the dark moon, those four trees pull back their roots. So the bridge disappears.”

The Heavenly Demon spoke.

“Primordial Root. Isn’t the holy land of the God of Chaos called Primordial Night?”

His gaze turned to Cale.

“I don’t know the details either. But I think that bridge was probably made by the Order of the God of Chaos.”

Cale shrugged and pointed below, into the precipice.

“Because beneath this is the holy land of the God of Chaos, Primordial Night.”

The canyon beneath the precipice.

If one combined all of its area, it would easily surpass an ordinary major city.

Alberu stood beside Cale and looked down.

“There have been ordinary users who fell into this precipice.”

There were always users who went out of their way to do the things they were told not to do.

“When that happens, they say [Inaccessible Area] appears, and then they die.”

Since users could resurrect and log back in even after death, they could attempt things like that.

“But what they saw while falling was said to be a fog filled with gray.”

“It seems it’s disguising itself with the power of the God of Chaos.”

Eruhaben said that while stepping up beside him.

“Cale.”

He continued.

“So how do we get in?”

Cale knew the method Duke Hinpa had used to approach it.

“Here.”

He pointed to the exact spot.

It was the precipice.

“You see that one patch of grass there?”

Trees grew on the cliffside too.

Among them was a small plant bearing red flowers.

“If you go a little farther down along that point, there’s a cave hidden by fog and vines.”

Follow me.

Leaving those words behind, Cale, carrying the wind, descended below.

Eruhaben, Rosalyn, and Alberu used magic.

The Heavenly Demon used martial arts.

And Gashan used his exceptional physical ability.

Striding down the cliff as lightly as if they were taking a stroll, the group soon stopped together with Cale.

“It’s here.”

Rustle.

When he brushed aside the long-grown vines, there was a cave wide enough for about two adults to walk side by side.

“We go down from here.”

There were stairs inside the cave.

“Gashan, did you mark it?”

“Yes.”

After confirming that Gashan had left traces all the way to this point, Cale moved forward.

Tap. Tap.

The only sounds on the way down were the footsteps of the group.

There were no watchers here.

Because this was a path only Guides could use.

‘The path the believers use must be separate.’

But that path would probably have many patrols.

This path was better for Cale.

“But what exactly is supposed to happen in Primordial Night?”

The Heavenly Demon’s question rang out.

Cale kept walking while looking only below.

“Wouldn’t the original Kim Hae-Il have been the type to quietly infiltrate, steal only what he needed, and run away? Though breaking a few things on the side would be fine too. But this time, it feels like you’re deliberately making a huge battle break out.”

Wanderer So Hee.

That matter alone could have caused the Wanderers and the Order of the God of Chaos to become hostile to each other.

But by attacking Wanderer Cho, he had caused a full fight to break out inside the holy land.

“You aren’t the type who would want a lot of people to get hurt.”

Even if they were believers of the Order of the God of Chaos.

The Cale the Heavenly Demon knew seemed like the sort who would think that way.

“Primordial Night is a kind of grave.”

When Cale spoke, the Heavenly Demon listened closely.

Tap. Tap.

Amid the footsteps of the six people descending, Cale’s voice continued.

“Guides like Duke Hinpa bring people in from outside.”

“Kidnapping, deception, seduction. They use any means necessary to guide people into this holy land.”

“And when they’ve gathered them all in one place, the saint uses the power of chaos to make them fight each other.”

Primordial Night.

That place was a grave with no mourning, and at the same time something like an execution ground or a battlefield.

“Consumed by chaos, they kill each other and kill each other again.”

“And when every last one of them has died like that, and even the final person collapses and dies from the injuries suffered up to that point.”

Tap tap.

“They offer all those corpses as sacrifices to the God of Chaos.” 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

“And the whole process of that battle and those deaths is said to be primordial chaos itself. A primitive scene from an age when only the strong survived and neither laws nor rules existed—”

“The believers of the God of Chaos, having watched that whole scene, offer up prayers of thanks.”

“Thanks?”

“Because it let them feel chaos.”

“And they call the night when that ritual takes place the Night of Pleasure.”

“Once even the ritual of offering the sacrifices is over, until the morning sun rises, every believer living there dances, eats delicious food, and literally pursues primal pleasure.”

Haaa.

Rosalyn let out a deep breath.

“But, you know. It didn’t seem like the people the Guides brought were New World NPCs.”

“Outside. They looked like lifeforms from many different dimensions. They all had different appearances and different clothes.”

“Hmm.”

Eruhaben let out a low sound and squeezed his eyes shut.

Tap.

Even in the middle of that, as Cale kept descending, he briefly stopped walking.

“If we go just a little farther down from here, there’s a forest. The bottom of the canyon.”

Soon, they came out of the cave.

A forest appeared.

Under a sky covered in gray fog, the forest gave off a strange and eerie atmosphere.

“......”

“......”

Without moving carelessly, the entire group held their breath.

Before coming out of the cave, they had all heard what Cale had said.

‘Outside the forest, there is a wall and a gate.’

Primordial Night had four gates in total.

‘We’ll avoid the eyes of the patrol and the guards and go over the wall. With our abilities, that’s more than possible.’

The wall was not high.

No magical effect could be seen on it.

They had probably trusted in the power of the God of Chaos spread over the canyon above and had not paid much attention to the wall itself.

If they just crossed it well under invisibility magic, it seemed they would not even leave traces behind.

‘And ordinarily, the patrols and guards aren’t that severe.’

From Duke Hinpa’s memories of going back and forth to the holy land, Cale had recorded every word, scene, and moment he had seen.

‘Looking at Duke Hinpa’s memories, before there’s a Night of Pleasure, unless the Guides are coming to offer sacrifices, it’s actually rather quiet.’

And now.

“......”

“......”

No one spoke easily.

In front of the gate.

There were quite a lot of people there right now.

-Cale.

Eruhaben spoke into his mind.

-They look like Guides and sacrifices.

A few people who looked perfectly fine, and others who clearly looked as if they had been dragged there, with their hands tied and shackles fastened around their ankles.

“......”

Cale squeezed his eyes shut.

The record holding Duke Hinpa’s memories opened up.

The Night of Pleasure.

Duke Hinpa, who had enjoyed himself while watching that horrifying night, walking toward the hidden place in the archive room.

‘Right.’

I missed it.

Cale opened his eyes.

The gray sky.

On the Night of Pleasure, the sky had been different.

‘Dark moon.’

Rosalyn’s words came back to him.

‘The reason that bridge is special is that exactly twice a month, on the night of the full moon and on the night of the dark moon, those four trees pull back their roots. So the bridge disappears.’

And today.

‘It’s the dark moon.’