I Picked up the Demon King - Chapter 165

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 165

The completed circle showed no signs of collapse.

Exquisitely, it maintained balance as if possessing the same gravitational force as the divine core. A miracle that wouldn’t have occurred if even the slightest error had happened. It was a miracle created by countless hours and endless repetition.

I stared endlessly and blankly at the silver-gray ring that shone so beautifully.

An immense sense of achievement welled up from deep within my chest, but.

‘Now…’

What should I do now?

There was nothing I could do.

Once the process of creating circles, which had been somewhat worthwhile for passing time, disappeared, all that remained was endlessly letting time flow by.

Endlessly, endlessly time passed.

Then suddenly I realized something strange.

Since drifting in this void space, roughly tens of thousands of years had passed. According to the Goddess’s memories, enough time had passed for other worlds to occupy this place several times over.

Why weren’t other worlds pushing in? Why couldn’t I even sense them?

My mind, hardened over the long years, didn’t work well. But I slowly began to reason out the cause.

* * *

After forming many hypotheses and discarding them, there were two possible reasons I could think of.

One was the possibility that all other worlds had already perished.

The Goddess had invaded many worlds and destroyed many worlds. There was no guarantee she was the only such existence, so it wouldn’t be strange if all worlds had perished.

But this hypothesis couldn’t be proven.

If worlds exist, proving that is easy. But proving they don’t exist is impossible. Even if I couldn’t detect them, I couldn’t deny the possibility that worlds existed somewhere beyond my senses’ reach.

Examining this hypothesis was meaningless. Even so, I tried to examine this hypothesis for a long time. Because what I had in abundance was time.

And next, I considered the possibility that there was already a world occupying this space.

And I thought this was the correct answer.

The reason was obvious.

I was the one who absorbed three worlds and their gods, and all the souls within them. In other words, wasn’t I myself equivalent to a single world?

Then it was also natural that I couldn’t sense other worlds. Other worlds would be as far away as the space that the original three worlds would have occupied.

‘…’

Actually, it didn’t matter which of the two hypotheses was correct.

The conclusion both hypotheses reached was that I ultimately couldn’t reach other worlds.

I was helplessly left alone. Not even the slightest possibility remained.

The loneliness I thought I had forgotten came rushing back suddenly. More than I had endured until now, I would have to remain alone in this void forever.

I wanted to escape.

What about taking my own life? Though I had long since transcended the framework of life, if I collapsed the completed circle, wouldn’t the backlash shatter even my consciousness?

The possibility wasn’t high, but when I was about to act impulsively.

The reason I didn’t was because of a faint instinct. The desire for survival. The memory from when I was human, struggling desperately to survive somehow.

That instinct, which had been the cause of everything, held me back until the very last moment.

‘What meaning is there.’

What meaning was there in surviving? Surely my mother had told me to survive. She told me to survive and be happy.

What happiness could exist in this eternal void?

Letting out a hollow laugh, I collapsed the circle. No, I tried to.

‘…?’

It was strange.

The circle didn’t collapse.

Through the long time spent weaving divinity, my control over divinity had risen to a considerable level. Even the massive gravitational force of the divine core was no longer a hindrance.

Yet that simple action of trying to collapse the circle somehow didn’t work.

I couldn’t do it. It felt as if my body was refusing.

‘What is this…’

Did this mean my mother’s final words had this much influence?

That didn’t make sense. That was impossible.

For a mere human’s words to influence me, who had reached the edge of divinity, was absurd.

I began to contemplate myself. I thoroughly examined everything—my endlessly bloated soul, the divinity core, and all the circles. I had to find the reason why my body and divinity wouldn’t obey me. Only then could I escape from this endless hell.

Why. Why can’t I take my own life.

I revisited the memories of all the souls I had absorbed and felt everything anew. A truly long time passed.

However, I couldn’t find a proper answer. There was something that bothered me a little.

‘The contract…’

The contract I made with the Demon Lord.

“I, Jude, swear to the following terms. First, while I live, I will strive for the resurrection of the soul subjugated to me. Second, while I live, I will strive for the death of those related to that soul’s demise.”

Also.

“I, the Demon Lord, swear this. I will not permit death to the master of this soul. I will always speak only the truth as I have until now.”

The contract the Demon Lord made with me.

If the influence of this contract still remained, I could understand why I couldn’t make the choice to die.

But does it make sense.

Both our souls had changed far too much from when I first made the contract with him. While absorbing countless souls, the Demon Lord and I became homogeneous, and in the end, didn’t I even absorb the Demon Lord’s soul.

The contract with the Demon Lord had long since crumbled.

Even if it hadn’t crumbled, hadn’t I fulfilled all the contract terms. The Demon Lord was resurrected by having his soul absorbed by me.

It might be far from resurrection in the true sense, but he chose that. He was satisfied with it. I even defeated the Goddess. Then why. Why does only that clause about not permitting me death remain to torment me.

“Aah…”

No. This doesn’t make sense. This is an absurd, terrible curse.

Doubt gradually turned into conviction.

I should have believed the words of the previous mages that contracts with demons always bring terrible results. The contract I made with him became a curse, trapping me in this eternal void.

* * *

For a long time, I researched ways to break the contract.

First, I found the reason why that contract—a contract that should have long since crumbled—still affected me. Perhaps when the Demon Lord was absorbed by me, the contract that had only remnants left began to exert its influence again.

The contract’s duration was until my life ended.

Considering my state of being unable to die, it was truly nothing short of a curse.

However, this eternal time eventually provided me with an answer.

I just needed to fulfill the contract. Then I would be able to escape its influence even if the duration hadn’t passed.

The condition I had set was the resurrection of the subjugated soul.

The soul I had subjugated wasn’t only the Demon Lord. All the souls I had absorbed could also be considered subjugated to me, couldn’t they.

But how could I resurrect souls that had been absorbed by me.

I began researching ways to split my soul.

It was like dividing water from a kettle into two cups, then combining it all back into the kettle. Then trying to pour again while selecting only the water that had been in a specific cup initially and pouring it out precisely.

In short, it was an impossible task.

It might have been somewhat possible at first. However, after spending endless time, all the souls within me had completely mixed and become one.

But I repeated endlessly. I proceeded with the work of separating all the souls I had absorbed from my soul. That was all I could do.

* * *

Eternal, infinite time had the power to make even seemingly impossible things possible.

I succeeded in separating the souls.

They were all my souls, yet they weren’t mine. They took forms exactly identical to the souls of those I had absorbed. A considerable number of souls were raging within my body.

It felt like my ego was splitting, but my trained—or perhaps worn down—mind endured it.

Now it was time to resurrect these souls.

First, they needed a world to live in. I referenced the experiences of the six divinities who created the Middle Realm, as well as the Demon Lord’s experiences.

The materials were my divinity. My flesh and my blood.

First, I divided the essence of hellfire and carved it into the sky. That became the sun.

When only the sun appeared alone in the void where nothing remained, the world became scorchingly hot. I scattered the Great Demon’s darkness across the sky and filled it with eternal ice.

The sun was still hot, but the cold energy neutralized it.

I created land and sea with the World Tree’s branches and Spirit’s Tears. I brought forth life. Very small life began to live and move on the continent.

I went through several trials and errors.

To live in this world, mana was needed. I took out the dragon heart and filled the atmosphere with mana.

Creating a world was not an easy task.

The Divinity diminished at a rapid pace, and even maintaining the nine Circles was now burdensome.

But what meaning would such things have anymore.

This place was no longer the Void. It wasn’t an empty, hollow space with nothing. On continents and oceans several times larger than before, more diverse life than ever lived.

Monsters that had lived in the Demon Lord’s world, and creatures that had lived in the Goddess’s World. There were even rare species that had slumbered deep in the continent’s history.

It wasn’t a perfect world. The three worlds had been mixed together, and I had to fill in the parts that became a mess after being damaged and lost. But I had done it.

Finally, I released the souls that had been filling my body.

I couldn’t resurrect them all immediately.

The continent was vast, but it was too small for all of them to live. They would be born one by one as time passed, and they would die.

‘With this…’

I had fulfilled the Contract.

The souls subjected to me would gradually be resurrected, and I would be freed from the Contract’s influence.

I would be able to find death. It would take a long time, but compared to the time I had experienced so far, it would be nothing.

I smiled faintly.

‘…’

Gradually, my consciousness grew dim.

It was probably because the foundation of Divinity that had formed my core had completely collapsed. It was probably because the nine Circles had also disappeared without a trace.

It was probably because this world, still barren for humans to live in, couldn’t be endured by a frail mortal body.

Nothing bound me anymore.

But the last thing I recalled was a voice I could no longer even remember.

‘Be happy.’

Had I been happy?

Well. It’s difficult to give a definitive answer. I had lived too long to feel such things, and had become too worn down.

But thinking about it now. Among the people I had met, none were perfect, but they were all quite decent people.

So I wished.

Someday. In this world.

Those who had once been part of me, who would be reborn.

May they be happy.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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