Ch.18260. Original Creator RedLake (4)

I understood all the memories.

Earth and Aileutan.

A vast world created by the accumulation of countless small moments, like grains of sand.

But the balance between these two worlds was collapsing due to Arel, who had lost most of his divine nature.

‘To the point where even divine power cannot restore it.’

Arel was the Creator God.

But even Arel couldn’t return the broken world to what it was before the balance collapsed.

‘Wait. Then perhaps Ayel…’

Ayel, the creator of Earth. Perhaps Ayel, Arel’s twin deity, could accomplish this.

But that answer quickly surfaced in my mind.

Ayel, Arel’s twin brother, was using most of his divine power to maintain the two fused worlds.

And without Ayel, the two worlds would have collapsed long ago due to their fusion.

“That’s right. Even Ayel, who still maintains his divinity, couldn’t recreate the two worlds as they were in the past.”

Turning back time. That would be equivalent to recreating the world.

The meaningful starting point in the past. An event from the distant past of Aileutan’s present.

The source of the imbalance between the two worlds was the corruption of the Red Dragon, who was once a divine beast. From that moment, Arel began losing his divinity to the Red Dragon.

“Since then, thousands of human years have passed. Even though it may not be a long time for a god… the karma created by the Red Dragon during that period was too great.”

Karma. The massive chain of cause and effect created by a god’s actions.

The Red Dragon, as an evil god, had accumulated unholy divinity.

Of course, Arel created his own avatars like Yu Jahyun to confront the Red Dragon on earth.

But that terrible chain of karma could not be easily broken.

The Red Dragon, whose existence wasn’t completely annihilated, continued to resurrect endlessly.

Eventually, it became an evil deity nearly indistinguishable from a true god. So reversing that karma and turning back the divine clock to the past…

Was impossible for the two gods now.

‘But we couldn’t just watch the end of the world.’

Just moments ago. In that reality outside that I became aware of on the building rooftop, in that time…

My thoughts aligned with Arel’s.

‘We had to take responsibility.’

So Arel and I chose the final measure. I said:

“With the last of your divine power. You created the smallest world you could possibly make.”

Arel nodded.

“That is correct. It was the only method available to me.”

As Arel said. With his remaining power, he couldn’t turn time back to the distant past. It was impossible to undo everything.

“For me. No, for us, it was a gamble. To find a possibility to annihilate the Red Dragon.”

Although the possibility was extremely small. There was a way.

That was to create a parallel reality different from the actual reality A.

And then to use the future of that altered parallel world as a core. To execute a massive reality modification in the external reality.

That was Arel’s and my plan.

‘It wasn’t unreasonable. Arel was the Creator.’

It was possible if he used all the creative power he had left.

However, unlike the vast reality A.

The parallel world that could be created with Arel’s divinity was extremely limited in time.

And above all, the final power of creation was. A power predicated on his own extinction.

“Yes. That world was so small that it was more like a novel than a world.”

Arel was right.

The metaphor of a novel was apt. With his power, he could only create a parallel world of very short duration.

“Just five years into the past from now. That was the limit of how far back I could go for the starting point of that parallel world.”

***

Arel fell silent for a moment.

I calculated the “five years ago” he mentioned.

Exactly 5 years and 7 months. That starting point was the entrance ceremony of the 18th class of Ains Academy.

At that moment, I understood why Arel had called himself the original author, RedRake.

“So the first parallel world you created…”

“You are correct. The Academy’s Omnipotent Hunter. That story, which you consider the original novel, is the first parallel world.”

All my questions were answered.

And I also understood what Arel meant by “possibility.” I said:

“In that parallel world, you and I tried to find a possibility. A possibility to defeat the Red Dragon.”

Though the probability was extremely low. We had to find the possibility of annihilating the Red Dragon in that parallel world.

‘Because that possibility would become the core of reality modification.’

And in that first parallel world.

As Arel’s avatar and observer. I found that first possibility.

‘The last descendant of the clan.’

That possibility was the Blue Dragon clan. A mixed-blood who inherited that bloodline. Kwon Si-woo.

Si-woo was a war orphan.

So he couldn’t properly remember his parents, but Si-woo was actually a mixed-blood like Yuri, born of both Earth and Aileutan parents.

“That’s right. That’s why Kwon Si-woo could use the divine beast’s power even on Earth.”

The power of the divine beast, the Blue Dragon. It was identical to the Windcutter power I obtained.

The Blue Dragon’s power to freely control wind, water, and even lightning.

In the original story, Si-woo, who could use all these multi-elemental powers, truly deserved the title of Omnipotent Hunter.

But I knew the end of that first world.

That parallel world. The world of “The Academy’s Omnipotent Hunter.” It ended on hiatus without continuing the protagonist Kwon Si-woo’s story.

‘No, to be precise, it wasn’t a hiatus.’

Having shared memories with Arel, I recalled everything that happened after that hiatus.

The final scene of the original story.

It was the scene where Si-woo, along with his guild members from Justice, attacked the Red Lake stronghold where the great demon Amon had appeared.

‘But they failed.’

The Si-woo of the original story. He was even stronger than the Si-woo I had just seen in the external reality.

The original Si-woo awakened all his Blue Dragon powers in the fight against Amon, but even with that, the power of a single divine beast wasn’t enough to properly face even Amon.

‘With just the Blue Dragon’s power… he was far weaker than I am now with the power of all the Four Guardians.’

Unlike in the external reality, Si-woo barely survived.

But he couldn’t overcome the final wall. In the end, the evil god, the Red Dragon Sethanus, was resurrected.

Si-woo met his death along with the end of that world.

“Yes. The first possibility we found. It ultimately ended in failure.”

Arel despaired at this fact.

More precisely, I, who had awakened as Arel’s avatar, despaired at Si-woo’s death.

In the original story, my role was that of an observer.

‘I couldn’t use any divine beast powers.’

The divine beast power I had as an avatar had been cut off in Yu Jahyun’s generation. The terrible malice created by the Red Dragon had taken root in my soul as a curse.

After that, I was repeatedly reincarnated as an avatar, but I couldn’t regain my power as an avatar.

Like Lee Min-soo in the original story. I could only be a powerless bystander.

So I placed my hope in Si-woo. But in the first world. Si-woo died.

“And because of that, the choice you and I made…”

Arel’s expression darkened.

“To be precise, it was your choice. Although it was a very small virtual world, no different from a novel. I was still the creator of that world. So I couldn’t directly annihilate it.”

Arel was right.

The first world, the original Aca-Hunter, was already a world that had lost all possibility with the evil god’s resurrection.

But Arel, full of creator’s compassion, couldn’t directly annihilate even that world within the novel.

So with the authority of annihilation I received from Arel.

As the Key of Darkness, I annihilated that world.

And even Arel’s memories.

***

Arel spoke no more.

But all my memories had already returned.

The truth of the original story. And why the original didn’t end with a bad ending, but rather in that ambiguous state called hiatus.

I refused to properly end the original story. So I made it a world that didn’t exist.

At the same time, I erased Arel’s memories. It was cruel to Arel, but I had no choice.

‘I… no, Arel and I had to create a new possibility.’

Arel lost his memory of creating the first parallel world. I made it that way.

Because of this, Arel could create a second parallel world without any trauma. For him, that second world was like the first.

“Since then, you and I have repeated countless creations and annihilations.”

But now Arel’s memories have also returned. The lost memories were regenerated through contact with me.

Arel and I created numerous parallel worlds like that.

Those small parallel worlds were comparable to novels.

Arel the Creator and I the Annihilator.

Thus, as co-authors, we remade numerous novels, numerous worlds.

Those memories were my memories of regression.

“Yet the possibility wasn’t easily created.”

Arel was right.

It wasn’t the small number of remakes that I remembered.

Not tens or hundreds, but remakes numbering in the thousands. Arel and I created and annihilated that many worlds.

And Si-woo was only the protagonist of the first story.

As the observer and narrator of that novel, and as a co-author, I had to constantly find possibilities.

‘Those possibilities included…’

There were remade worlds where someone other than Si-woo became the protagonist.

Chae Min-ah. Or Yuri Tarkovskaya. And there were stories where Yeon So-so was the protagonist. Even Seong A-rin from two classes below.

All the major cadets from Ains Academy were those possibilities.

So I, who was an observer, also dwelled in that novel as a minor cadet at Ains. But the endings were all the same.

Neither Yuri, nor So-so, nor A-rin. None of the other cadets succeeded in stopping the evil god.

“That’s right. The karma those possibilities possessed. It wasn’t enough to overcome the Red Dragon’s karma.”

Arel was right. So I despaired.

Arel forgot the memories of those annihilations, but I remembered all the remakes of those failed worlds.

And with each remake, the power of creation was gradually diminishing.

The evidence was the current reality.

The story that used to start from the entrance ceremony of Ains’ 18th class. It was pushed back to the beginning of the second year.

“It was evidence that the world I could create had become that much smaller.”

As Arel said. As that time gradually decreased, if it started from the graduation point of the 18th class. The possibilities that could be created would be much fewer.

There were stories about A-rin from two classes below, but once the main characters of the 18th class graduated, the variables that could change the future would inevitably decrease.

I, who was leading the remake of that world, fell into deep despair.

‘No possibility… no protagonist… could stop the evil god.’

Yet the power of creation continued to diminish like that. The final power created on the premise of the Creator’s extinction.

At this rate, without being able to prevent the foretold destruction of the world. Arel. And I would perish.

No method was in sight.

As the creator of that world. All I could see was a bad ending.

Only then did I understand why I, Arel’s avatar, the Key of Darkness, was called the Colorless Key in this novel’s reality.

The power of annihilation possessed by darkness. Even that power had now lost most of itself.

To the point where that deep darkness faded to colorlessness.

‘This novel reality where my companions and I are right now is. The last world that Arel and I can create.’

It meant that the novel would remain just a novel. The modification of the external reality, that desperate reality, was impossible.

But at the end of those thousands of remakes, I saw a new light.

In the most recent hundreds of regressions. The ones who found the possibility in those regressions. It wasn’t Arel and me.

Arel, who had been silent, spoke again.

“Yes. The ones who created the possibility were the characters in the world we created. It was them.”

Suddenly, the surrounding scenery changed.

The depths of the Sacred Lake.

Three people were sleeping at the bottom of that place.

Yuri, So-so, and A-rin who had been with me in Aileutan. Arel looked at the three of them and continued.

“Those three found you. You, who were a bystander and observer. Your existence, living under the name Lee Min-soo in the current world.”

That was true. It wasn’t me who created the connection with them.

In the remade novel. The ones who directly found me, who was a bystander and minor character.

And the people who enabled me to regain my power as an avatar. It was these three.

“Through the connection with them, the novel began to write its final story.”

All the connections with these three people. They began to flash through my mind again.