Seeing the Earth Demon again felt a little strange.
His pure white hair, even his beard, eyebrows, and skin had all turned white, like he was a different person.
“Seol-Hwi… what happened?”
The Earth Demon looked around, asking that. The empty lot had turned to ruin, and sharp strange rocks were now gentle. There was uneven land on the other side that turned flat.
One could get a sense of how fierce the fight was by just looking at it.
“Everyone… died,”
Seol-Hwi said slowly.
He had this blank look, and his face was calmly speaking of the pain.
“My allies… everyone left me.”
“…”
The Earth Demon turned around and slightly closed his eyes. As expected, a huge fight happened, and the damage seemed to be too much. And he knew that he could not be free from responsibility here.
“I am sorry. I wish I had made a decision sooner…”
“If that were the case, someone would have died sooner. Isn’t that what happens to a life that wants romance?”
The Earth Demon nodded at those words of Seol-Hwi which set him free. And this bitter smile spread.
Him saying that no matter what had changed, the outcome would not, touched his heart so deeply.
The fate of Seol-Hwi, who tried so hard to protect his men. And his own fate of death that soon followed.
Tuk
The Earth Demon sat down next to Seol-Hwi and then looked at the ruins on the other side and asked,
“The sect leader is dead?”
“Yes. It wasn’t as easy as we expected though.”
“Of course it wasn’t. The person who assassinated my master in the first place cannot be someone weaker than Master.”
“…!”
The words of his shocked Seol-Hwi.
“You knew?”
“…Can I say I was confident enough that I ‘knew’? When the situation got to that point, I began to think. The actions and perspective I saw that was taught to me when I was a kid and now. They both felt completely different.”
The Earth Demon shook his head.
His master was a man of few words. Moreover, being the Sect leader, the sky of the Demonic Sect, there were millions of believers.
He had the feeling that something had changed about this person, but of course, who would dare go against the Demonic Sect’s leader… he just thought his personality changed.
And so he did not think too deeply into it.
“Great sahyung, second sahyung, and third sajeo… they should have known when he tried to get the disciples killed… no, they wouldn’t have known at that time how much of it was true and how much was false.”
The Earth Demon blamed himself.
No matter how bloody his time was, there were parts which were clean in his memory, some five years back.
The great sahyung who acted proud and then acted clumsy.
The second sahyung who would shyly look at him.
Even though the man always snorted at others’ words, he would throw snacks around. It was a scary sahyung, but there was a time when he got close.
That was, until the battle for the successor was announced.
“You probably had more tough memories than good ones. No one can live the Earth Demon’s life, so no one will know your heart.”
“…Are you comforting me now? Even after going through these four months of hardships because of my lack of judgment.”
“It wasn’t something you did.”
“…Huh.”
The Earth Demon shook his head. Now he thought he had nothing to say at any criticism thrown at him… he felt like he could not understand it.
Wheik. Wheik.
The wind howled loudly as it passed by, and this burnt smell rose from the land. Maybe there was also the damp smell of ice melting too.
The two people took a long look at the ruins and the dead.
“How long… is left?”
Tak.
Seol-Hwi asked, and the Earth Demon slightly tilted his head.
“Hmm… How long. Around half a day.”
“…”
The remaining life. The time left until death.
Sa Yu-kang said that the Earth Demon utilized his Heavenly Killing Star, and although he hoped that was not the case, it seemed to have been true in the end.
“They followed me so persistently that… sigh, I couldn’t help but use it.”
He wanted to escape it too, but the vice leader was not someone who could be taken lightly.
The Earth Demon thought so.
“…”
Seol-Hwi could not say a thing to him. He lost people he cared for, but the same happened for the Earth Demon too.
Was he not in a better situation? Right now, the Earth Demon was waiting for death.
Smile
As the Earth Demon looked at him so sadly, he shook his head.
“No. Do not look at me like that. I feel good now. Hmm. Really.”
“…?”
“Years of being bullied my whole life and just enduring it… because it is over. I am glad that I was able to finally meet and have a last conversation with you before I die.”
Shh
The Earth Demon’s gaze reached beyond the sky.
His face, with red eyes which looked like he would cry, was an expression filled with emotion, numerous emotions.
And he said,
“Thank you, Seol-Hwi.”
“…”
“I was born with a fixed destiny and a life of being treated as a weapon rather than a human. My last moments have been decided. An end where all the blood vessels of my body are on fire and the enemy ahead is dead, you too, are consumed, like I…”
There was this small strain in Earth Demon’s voice.
A nightmare of previous times. Days of fear and regret. He tried to blame himself and asked why he was born like this, tried to show sadness and avoid being connected to people around him.
A bitter and lonely end. But from when?
“You made my life, even for a brief moment, look like a human’s.”
A person going after romance.
Someone who would protect and fight by his side and not sacrifice him to save themselves.
Just how lucky and happy he was to have someone like that by his side.
How comforting it was to have someone you could truly trust and ask for favors without concern.
“I know I am going to die soon… It isn’t as horrible or painful as I thought, rather it feels like a relief. For letting me live this comfortably, thank you. Thank you so much.”
“…”
Seol-Hwi did not know how to answer.
He knew that the Earth Demon did not have an easy life. And as a result of his influence, he was caught up in many tough situations and bad events.
However, Seol-Hwi himself gained much more in life.
To him who thought of the loss of many, now that he heard it, what the Earth Demon wanted was very simple. Even that was not allowed.
He said he was thankful and that his life was not all bad, so what could he say back?
“Right, now is the time to end this.”
“Uh?”
As Seol-Hwi looked confused, the Earth Demon got up.
“The one who caused all of this, he is coming.”
“…!”
At that moment, Seol-Hwi felt goosebumps rise on his body. He could not believe it was coming.
Was he referring to the absolute being which Sa Yu-kang spoke of? Just how much does the Earth Demon know about this?
Maybe…
“Do not look so suspicious at me. I am not good at understanding the situation either. The reason why I came here was because of the Profound Demon energy which I felt…”
Shhh
The Earth Demon pointed to a place on the other side.
Above the corpse of the fake sect leader, there was this scene of the air shaking.
“Well, there it is…”
This odd situation—
At first glance, it was a different air flow which they had never seen before. No, it was an energy which did not exist in their world.
The Earth Demon frowned.
“A path to another world, a situation where the boundaries with this world are collapsing. Maybe that guy from there… He should be someone who doesn’t exist in this world.”
“…”
Seol-Hwi’s expression changed from there.
At last, face to face. The one who made him like this, has come here, and the existence of the absolute being which had to be overcome.
Tsssss!
With a strange sound, a hole twice the height of a normal person opened up.
The tip was gray and blue with an oval shaped hole. The black inside gave off an eerie energy just from the sight of it.
Shhh
And a bit of time passed. A person who appeared to be human walked out.
<Congratulations. In this world, you gained 1,000 lives by encountering the Absolute.>
“…”
Something felt off.
Suddenly the system began to speak and give him messages for his achievement.
Could it be possible to feel this bad about a performance that was paid at the cost of a life?
He tried his best in life, but—
One thousand by just meeting him.
Depending on what was done, one gets thousands of years of time in one life?
<Congratulations. You have established the qualifications for becoming an AI. After death, you can head down the path of an AI whenever you want.>
The window popped up again.
“…”
This was another unexpected window. Is this how the path naturally progressed when one experienced a fight with the Absolute?
Or was it because the existing AI vanished?
Anyway, the appearance of the Absolute being from another world had greater changes for Seol-Hwi.
Did that not mean that the player who said “that person” in the past was none other than the man the fake Cheon Wol-seong spoke of?
That was because he never expected for someone to suddenly appear in another world like this.
Step
And he saw someone walking through, around eight feet tall.
What caught his attention was the clothes rather than the face. The sword, blade, spear, and the bow.
Wearing weapons on his body like decorations, and at least one of the weapons could be recognized.
There, Heavenly Sword!
A bit short to be called a great sword, but it had beads on the hilt. It was one of the weapons he purchased.
Then the…
The black shiny spear, the phantom blade bent like a hook. Even the bow which shined white, and the sword in the hand.
They must all be new weapons with special abilities.
The man, armed with each and every one of them, all extraordinary weapons, chuckled as he looked at them.
“Ha, how many years has it been?”
His first words were exclamations. But what followed later was a rhetorical question.
“No. Time doesn’t mean much, right? Still, it is pretty good. You get the honor of meeting me… maybe the design should have been a little more detailed.”
Design?
Seol-Hwi frowned at those words. It was a meaningful tone, but it was difficult to ask. It was also because of his physical condition not being perfect right now.
Internal energy…
He could not feel the other person’s presence. He felt like just an ordinary person on the street, but then at the same time he felt like he was looking at this distant mountain…
He could not even guess just how strong the person was. It was his first time feeling this.
Is this what the state of Demon God was?
Drip
Cold sweat began to fall down the back of his head. How could he know it? But no matter how hard he tried to concentrate, he could not see anything.
Such an ordinary person should not be weaker than Seol-Hwi?
It was such a mistake. And it could not be possible at all.
The prediction… he couldn’t guess the bowl.
That meant it was a mountain so high, one whose top couldn’t be seen
When Seol-Hwi was so overwhelmed by that meaning that he could not even speak.
“Was it you? The one who started all this?”
Asked the Earth Demon.
Shh
With a calm look, he stepped forward.
“The power to turn the heavens and lands upside down at a small gesture. I don’t understand it. Usually people with that level of strength are not happy to be involved in the world… Why are you so deeply involved in human affairs?”
“…!”
Seol-Hwi felt it again.
The power of the other person which he could not see. But the Heavenly Killing Star could.
“Ohh. Such a profound question.”
He glanced at Seol-Hwi and then smiled at the Earth Demon.
“Since you came all the way here with a player, I will answer your question. But before that… do you know this?”
“Which one?”
With a grin he said.
“In this world, a person like you didn’t actually exist.”
“…What do you mean?”
“You will understand when you hear it. The one with Heavenly Killing Star who doesn’t die at the age of 16. How could it happen… simple. Because I made it so.”
Smile
The Absolute smiled at that.
“You hold the strength because I allowed it.”
“Because I extended your life.”
“So, although limited, the combat power can match mine. So please…”
Clap
At that moment, the equipment which were the absolute weapons all turned to the Earth Demon, like soldiers waiting for orders.
“Do not disappoint me. Heavenly Killing Star.”
