Praise the Orc

Chapter 226: Final Book – COSMOS (2)

Crockta was inside the darkness, but the Ashen God was not there.

The abyss was the only thing that surrounded him.

‘Universe,’ someone whispered.

But Crockta couldn’t see who was whispering. He looked around, and in the profound darkness, he saw a tiny spark.

What could it be?

His body moved beyond time and space toward the spark.

‘The Eternal Sun.’

It was burning red.

A blue planet orbiting the sun came into his sight. It was Elder Lord. The atmosphere reflected the seas and the skies, and there were also continents. Vast lands he had never seen before were spread out on the margins of the map.

Crockta looked back at the sun.

Inside, he found a god in slumber.

It was through that god’s sacrifice that the sun was able to extend its lifespan. As he entered a long sleep, the sun was able to conserve energy to radiate heat for one more day.

The face of the sleeping sun god...Crockta looked back.

There was the vast universe. Not a speck of light was to be found. The sun of Elder Lord was the last remaining fire in this universe. He was looking at the landscape of a universe that was eternally cooling down.

Within it, Crockta discovered the empty eye sockets of the God of Stars, a dead god.

Time rapidly wound down.

The world gradually cooled. The last light went out. The sun could no longer hold the planets. Elder Lord became a dead planet, deviating from its orbit.

The universe expanded. Galaxies and stars, planets and celestial bodies drifted apart. Thus, the world headed toward eternal freezing. It sunk into an everlasting void that was without heat or energy.

Absolute zero.

The ‘Big Freeze.’

It was the end of the universe.

Crockta closed his eyes.

This was the end that this world was eventually going to reach, and even Jung Yi-An’s own world was someday going to face the same fate.

There was nothing there, nothing at all.

He closed his eyes. The darkness inside his eyelids was somehow brighter than the darkness before him.

Eternal silence ensued for a few seconds or a few days.

Maybe it ensued for years, or perhaps even billions of years.

In a place where the meaning of time was forgotten, Crockta was left bewildered within that eternity.

Crockta heard something.

Thump.

Thump.

He opened his eyes.

What was in front of his eyes was still a vast darkness. Yet, that rhythm continued to echo in Crockta's ears.

Thump.

Thump.

Eventually, a thread emerged in the darkness.

A thread with an indescribable color, pulsing at a slow rhythm was there.

In that universe where all stars had died, and all celestial bodies and planets had perished and were forever frozen, that thread alone shone.

It connected the vast universe. It pierced through void and resignation. The past and present were connected by that single thread.

At one point on that thread, Crockta and the Ashen God stood. There, they were swinging at each other, at the moment when Beelzebub was just about to devour them. In that moment, the thread pierced through the Ashen God, Crockta, and Beelzebub alike. Ultimately, they were merely dancing on a thread.

Crockta looked away.

At another point on the thread, Jung Yi-An was on Earth. Crockta himself was lying inside a capsule as if he were dead, with his sister Yi-Yu hovering around him. They were still on the same thread.

A little further away, Han Yeo-Ri was seen leaning on a counter. What was she thinking about? She was humming a tune absentmindedly as she constantly glanced at the cafe door as if she were waiting for someone.

Moving further, crowds stopped on the streets were seen. They all looked at the screen that was showing Crockta and the Ashen God swinging at each other. All these crowds and the world were on that thread.

Their universe was still young. There was still much time for Earth. But someday it would fall. From the initial explosion to the scene of eternal descent, everything would be connected through that thread.

Then, he returned to Elder Lord.

The thread pulsed and Crockta saw everything.

Antuak with a stern face. Xantimur with a sorrowful expression.

Grant, Thompson, Jeremy.

Enyanis, Elsanad, Ilya.

Eileen, Kapur, Rakuta.

Yona and Zelkyan.

Akantore and Jakiro.

All the people he had met, he saw all of them.

Not even the gods could escape the thread.

It was a thread that penetrated everything, pulsing at a slow rhythm, a thread of an indescribable color.

What was it?

And that color?

Why was it so brilliantly radiant?

The thread continued reaching out.

The vast universe, the dimensions of Elder Lord and Earth were born and then faded on that thread. Unknown universes and worlds he was unaware of, all were pierced by this thread. The past and present remained on that thread.

Soon, the thread moved toward a new place.

Crockta followed that it.

Space and time receded.

He reached a wall.

The thread passed through the wall and continued beyond.

Crockta could not peek behind it. An inscrutable, solid wall blocked the way. He focused his eye on the hole where the thread had pierced through the wall.

There was no gap. Nothing was visible.

He moved in closer.

He squinted.

Then, the thread pulsed again.

Thump.

Thump.

Following that sound, a gap momentarily opened.

In that brief instant, Crockta could see beyond the wall through that small gap.

There was—ah, beyond the wall was...

Tears streamed from Crockta's eyes.

Who could have known?

Crockta found himself standing in darkness again.

The voice spoke.

'My children, who have sworn honor to me.'

He was the voice and the eyes.

A being no longer remembered by anyone. A being that was now forgotten.

Yet, he was always whispering.

Whispering to the universe, 'Prove it.'

A sword was in Crockta's hand, the God Slayer. But it was not the one he knew. A brilliant thread that pierced the world was entwining God Slayer. Together with the small pulse of the world, God Slayer's pulse took a leap as well.

The slow rhythm of the universe was transmitted from the universe to Crockta, and then to God Slayer in his hand.

Now, he stood again before the Ashen God.

In the moment when Beelzebub engulfed them with his vast mouth.

Only he and the Ashen God stood facing each other inside.

Crockta felt the thread that pierced the world nudging his back.

The beginning and the end of the universe, even that cycle was but a minor breeze swaying within that slow rhythm.

Her despair was so futile compared to that rhythm.

"Ashen God."

Crockta called out to his enemy.

He returned from the vast landscape of the universe to his own time and space.

Time began to flow again.

The God Slayer now scattered a brilliant light instead of flames.

It was a color that needed no light, a color out of this world.

And, the Ashen God saw it.

"Ahh."

She was right. At the end of the world, there was a void. Their ending was an eternal freeze converging at absolute zero.

Yet, at the same time, she did not know that even that void was but a speck under the grand laws of the universe.

Their existence, life, and death were mere dust before the end of the universe, but even the universe was nothing but a tiny dot under the grand harmony.

Even eternal time was cradled in the arms of a greater eternity.

The vast landscape of the universe was merely dancing on that pulsating thread.

And that thread would become a plane, the plane would form a shape, and the shape would become intertwined with a new time that would flow again.

Such was the process of dimensions rising—through buoyancy and sinking.

"Did you see it?"

For a brief moment, she witnessed the same landscape that Crockta had seen within the brilliant light of God Slayer.

She realized.

"I..."

Her mind, consumed by fear, could not see beyond the fall.

She saw the death that was unseen by all, yet she had failed to see beyond death.

That’s where it was.

"But it's too late."

Her face contorted. The grand spell of the cycle had already begun. A runaway train did not stop. It diligently gathered force, heading toward the reversal of entropy.

"It’s too late."

Tears streamed from her eyes.

Why couldn’t she see it before?

If only she had known a bit earlier, if she had realized sooner that nothing in the world was in vain.

If only she understood the world would have continued.

"Ashen God."

And then, that man called her again.

She looked at the orc warrior standing before her.

Crockta, as always, was facing the world straight on.

"You still haven't seen it properly."

His eyes, bloodshot and reddened, saw the world much clearer than hers, which were blurred by tears.

"Nothing can truly be too late."

The Ashen God's eyes widened.

Eventually, Crockta swung his God Slayer.

The blade moved slowly.

It split the divinity of the Ashen God.

It cleaved through the greedy mouth of Beelzebub that enveloped them.

Following the path of God Slayer, the thread that was piercing the universe also bent.

The world bowed.

The white sphere in the sky—the grand spell of the cycle—was split into two.

The world became dyed in that indescribable color.

That brilliant light filled the view.

Ah.

Within that wondrous scene, Crockta opened his eyes wide and gazed at the thread of the universe.

From the beginning to the end, it would pulse with a slow rhythm as it threaded through the universe.

Forever.

Thump.

Thump.

The pulse of the world surged.

Within the throbbing of goodness, Crockta found a point.

Then, he realized the reason he stood there.

"I see."

There was the sun.

There was wind.

There were trees.

And so, a leaf fell.

Just a single leaf, but the falling of that one leaf was the beginning of everything.

"Oh?"

A woman lifted the leaf that had landed on her shoulder to her fingertips. Looking at the leaf, she stopped walking. Another season had gone by like so.

Her friend, walking alongside her, burst into laughter.

"You just got leafed. Isn't that a good sign?"

"Right? Maybe I'll meet a handsome man today, or something."

They stopped in their tracks, looking at each other for a moment.

"Should we grab a coffee from that cafe over there?"

They were supposed to part ways there, but that leaf that had landed on their shoulder led them to a cafe.

As they entered the café, they noticed that it was quite empty. Their gaze was drawn to a rather handsome man sitting by the window.

He was talking to a middle-aged man in a rather odd modernized Hanbok with gelled-back hair.

As the woman was wondering what the two men’s relationship could be, her friend started a conversation.

"You know Elder Lord, right? My brother totally helped me level up a lot yesterday. Are you still on the same level?"

"Wow... I'm jealous. I got harassed yesterday, so annoying."

"Harassed?"

"Some creep groped my butt out of nowhere as he walked by... It felt really disgusting, god."

"What did you do? Did you report him? Ugh, why do those people do that?"

The woman did not see the face of the rather handsome man sitting by the window turning grave after overhearing their conversation.

He said to the man in a modernized Hanbok sitting across from him.

"Master."

"What."

"How do I get on Elder Lord?"

"Have you changed your mind?"

"I’m going to do it."

The gentle breeze pushed the leaf, the leaf pushed the woman, and her voice soon propelled Jung Yi-An into the world of Elder Lord.

"I’m going to do it right away."

Then, where did that gentle breeze come from?

"Hmm?"

Lenox was standing on the training ground of Orcrox. He never stopped training, even as he aged. Suddenly, he felt like giving his axe a swing.

Thump.

"That’s a strange sensation."

It was an ordinary swing. And with that swing, he touched a thread that was piercing the world. However, he didn’t know exactly what he had just touched, or what realm it was.

Because it was a realm he had not yet reached.

"Whatever. If I keep training, I'll reach it someday."

The great warrior Lenox smiled.

"Perhaps a worthy recruit will show up and reach the realm I couldn't. Either way would be fine. It doesn't matter which one."

And he swung his axe again.

Everything and everyone in the world was part of that thread.

His ordinary swing touched the thread of the world. At first, it was negligible. So negligible that no one would notice the tiny fracture that was formed. But it spread as a ripple, growing and growing, and created a small tremor on that distant Earth.

As the thread trembled, a handful of breezes stirred.

It was an incident that occurred purely by chance. But that ripple flowed along the thread and created a small wind on a distant planet.

And that wind was a gentle breeze that could only tickle someone's cheek at best.

But that wind caused a leaf to fall.

And soon, the leaf would land on a woman's shoulder.

Everything was connected.

"Did you orchestrate all this?" Crockta asked.

'It' responded, 'I do not orchestrate. I only watch.'

'It' was a voice and an idea.

The response of the world being inputted into his soul.

Crockta faced it.

'It' waited for Crockta.

He wanted to ask ‘It’ a lot of questions. All the truths and laws of the world were within ‘It’, but Crockta realized he was allowed only one question.

Time had lost its meaning.

Seconds or minutes, days or perhaps billions of years, Crockta thought to himself.

In a brilliant light, Crockta tossed ‘It’ his final question.

"What becomes of the end of the universe?"

Within the landscape of the distant universe, he witnessed a world beyond the wall along the brilliant thread.

He couldn't believe there was such a place somewhere in the universe.

As long as such places exist, the universe will never end. The ending feared by the Ashen God would vanish like a breeze.

Is there meaning to life?

Does it not all end with death?

The thread throbbed once. 'It' laughed—no, the world laughed. The entire universe trembled once.

'It' answered, 'All civilizations of this universe destroyed themselves before their suns cooled.'

'They ultimately hated and killed each other.'

'They indulged in jealousy, envy, and theft.'

'Do not fear the death that is in the distant future. Instead, love each other in this moment.'

'Love each other.'

'Spread love, not hate.'

'If you do not wish for an end.'

'Love each other.'

'Then, there will be light.'

The voice soon became a touch that settled on Crockta's shoulder. Caressing Crockta's shoulder, 'It' whispered in his ear, ‘You have proven yourself, my son.’

That voice, the forgotten god, whom now no one remembered, he had always been watching over them.

Just so that they wouldn't be lonely.

Crockta smiled.

With that, his quest was over. It had been a long fight. His weary shoulders slumped. He whispered, almost like a sigh.

“It’s been really hard.”

'It' responded, ‘I know.’

Crockta completed the final quest.

* * *

The massive maw of Beelzebub swallowed Crockta and the Ashen God.

Then, a streak of sword light flashed.

Everything split apart.

Beelzebub was the first to fall. His body crumbled after being cleaved in two.

The Ashen God standing in its mouth was also split in half and her form collapsed.

The last to sink was the white sphere floating in the sky, the grand spell of the cycle.

Crockta's greatsword, God Slayer, had executed everything.

As the grand spell of the cycle collapsed, white light began to burst forth, soon filling the world.

A pure white light enveloped the world.

It spread beyond the vicinity to the entire world of Elder Lord.

Soon, it dissipated as if it had never existed in the first place.

One by one, they began to rise.

Mortals who had lost their lives opposing the Ashen God, and gods who had suffered blows to their divinity, got up from the ground.

The grand spell of the cycle, the power for the re-creation of the universe, its true purpose was regeneration all along. The power that had collapsed before destroying the world repaired all the destruction it had brought.

All heroes and gods who had risked their lives to save the world rose from the ground.

They all looked in one direction.

Crockta stood there.

And before him sat the Ashen God, crying.

It was all over.

Crockta had won.

"Ashen God."

The Ashen God, who had despaired at the sight of the universe's final scene and had driven the world to the brink of destruction, looked up at Crockta with tear-filled eyes.

"Do not ever forget what you just saw."

Crockta turned away.

It was time.

The final quest had been completed. It was time for him to leave.

"You saved the world."

"We saved it together."

He hugged the warrior who had fought to the end, the War God. He shook hands with the Goddess of Magic, exchanged glances with the God of Radiance, and bowed to the Goddess of Mercy. Tarthatot gave him a thumbs up. All the gods paid their respects to him.

He fist-bumped Hoyt, bumped shoulders with Kumarak, and hugged Zankus. Anya kissed his cheek. He clasped hands with Tashaquil and laughed with Wallachwi. All the orcs paid their respects to him as well.

He slapped Driden's shoulder and tousled Adantadore's hair. Xantimur and Antuak smiled at him. Human heroes, the mighty of the elf race, brave dwarfs, and wise gnomes greeted him. All races paid their respects to him.

Finally, he stood before Tiyo and Anor.

"It's time to leave," he said to them.

"What do you mean it’s time to leave? We’re supposed to travel the continent together!" Tiyo retorted.

The effect of the Ashen God’s Perceptual Distortion was lifted. Now they faintly understood what the curse of the stars was. The travelers called by the Ashen God from another dimension were those cursed by the stars.

"The Ashen God summoned me, but I do not belong to this dimension."

Tears welled up in Tiyo's eyes. It was the first time he had shown such emotion.

Crockta chuckled.

"I'm sorry I couldn't keep our promise."

"You can't even keep a promise, you dweeb orc son of a..."

"Be a man and don’t cry."

Crockta wrapped his arm around his shoulder.

He looked at Anor. His eyes were getting wet too, but he was trying to force a smile.

"I'll send you off with a smile."

"Thank you."

"Thank you, Crockta. You saved me. I will never forget that."

"Neither will I."

Crockta embraced Tiyo and Anor.

The gnome and half-dark elf fit easily into the broad embrace of the orc.

"Well," Crockta clenched his teeth.

Partings were best kept short.

"Goodbye."

Crockta faced everyone.

His body began to scatter into white particles.

He looked at the faces of everyone watching him. Tiyo, who acted tough but ended up bawling, Anor, who seemed frail but smiled at the very end, his comrades, and those who were enemies at one time but were allies in the end. He saw them all.

'Hey, rookie!'

They were there too.

They never died.

'No, now we should call you the Great Warrior Crockta.'

They smiled and extended their fists to Crockta.

‘You’ve done well. Bul'tar!'

Soon, his entire field of vision turned white.

It was time to say farewell.

Just as he was about to return to Earth.

Tiyo's shouting echoed in his ears.

"I’ll see you again, Crocktaaaaaaa!"

* * *

The Elder Lord Crisis was solved thanks to Crockta.

He was indeed confirmed as a user, most likely Mystery, but it was never revealed who the real person behind the user was.

The final quest was completed, and all the users returned home.