Information Dump

"Mmmfff?" A muffled sound escaped from Byeol's mouth. He felt his face pressed against something soft. He used his hands and realised that it was a pillow. He pushed himself up and looked around.

He was in a hospital room. Again.

Suddenly the door opened and his father walked in. Without a word his father immediately hugged him tightly. They stayed like that for a few seconds before separating.

But suddenly his father slapped him across the face. Though it didn't hurt him physically, he still wondered what happened for his father to do that. That was when the memories of his fight against the Dragon started coming back to him.

'Now that I think about it. I was quite close to death's door for a second.' he thought to himself and he properly seated himself on his bed.

"*Sigh* Your mom asked me to do it, for not telling any of us that you will be going to the Gate and also for risking your lives."

"... I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me." Byeol softly muttered.

Go Gun Hee furrowed his brows when he saw his son. His voice seemed quite monotone and without any kind of feeling in it, but he chalked it up to him just waking up after such a dangerous event.

"So… How long have I been asleep? And why was I faced downwards?"

"It has been almost 2 days. And for your second question, look behind you."

Byeol followed his instructions and looked behind him. There he slowly unfurled his wings and was surprised to see another set of wings with all of them coated in flames. He was even more surprised to see the halo-like object on the back of his head. The halo was so large that it was even visible from the corner of his vision quite clearly.

He looked towards his arms and body and felt that he had grown a little more stronger than before. But he decided to look more into his abilities later as he had more important things to do currently.

"Where are we now?"

"You are in Washington right now. *Sigh* Do you want to hear it?"

Byeol understood what his father was talking about and replied, "Yes."

"Though many people were evacuated, the total confirmed casualties till now have reached 2.6 million civilians and the count just keeps on increasing. The only surviving hunters are six, including you. The economy of many countries have fallen after America decided to ask the countries to return the loans that America had lent to them. Though countries like China, South Korea, India and Brazil have been spared as a show of thanks to the surviving 5 Hunters. Within a few days a Conference will be held where the Govt will announce the decisions that they would take moving forward."

Byeol stayed silent for a few minutes. He looked outside through the window in the room and digested the information. He turned around and suddenly ordered, "Reveal yourself. I have some questions to ask."

"What?" His father asked, confused at Byeol's behaviour.

"I said. REVEAL YOURSELF." Byeol's voice suddenly turned deep and authoritative. Go Gun Hee's eyes immediately turned yellow as a huge aura emerged from his body.

"Hello, Mr. Go Byeol." The being possessing Go Gun Hee's body said.

"I am the Brightest Fragment of Brilliant Light. And I am ready to answer any kind of questions you may have. But before that-" Go Gun Hee waves his arms but nothing visible happened.

But Byeol turned around and realised that they were not on Earth. At least not in the same plane of reality as Earth.

"You know I can easily kill you and escape, right?"

"Yes. But if you kill me, this space will collapse, leaving you a few hundred light years away from Earth."

"..." Byeol realised that what the Ruler spoke was true as the only tether connecting this dimension to the real world was the soul of the Ruler.

"What do you want?" Byeol asked the Ruler.

"I or rather we want to know your intentions. Whose side are you on?"

"I am on nobody's side. I can do whatever I want to do. You all have no role in what I do or fight against."

"Hmm. Then let me ask you after telling you a little bit about us.

At the-"

"SPEAK ONLY THE TRUTH." Byeol ordered the Ruler. The Ruler suddenly felt compelled to speak, but was unable to tell any kind of lies. Whenever he tried to lie his jaw locked up.

Byeol didn't say anything else and the ruler understood that as a sign to continue speaking.

"At the beginning, none of existence… existed. There was only light and darkness. The Absolute Being split the light and created us, the Rulers and split the darkness and created our enemies, the Monarchs.

Our role was to protect while the Monarch's role was to destroy. War was obviously inevitable. After eons of wars, we still saw no end to it, so we went to the Absolute Being and asked Him to give us strength so that we can put an end to this miserable war.

But He did not reply. He just looked down on us with his cold and observing eyes with a hint of amusement in them. At that time we realised. The war was never necessary. The war was done by us so that we can entertain Him.

We thought that the war would never end as long He was alive, so we marched to His throne room and killed him.

But how wrong we were.

The enmity between two forces which have been waging war for eons cannot be erased just by His death.

We killed our enemies. But we also lost our comrades. One of us turned to the other side.

But we still keep on fighting."

"... So? What does that have to do with you all being on Earth?"

"*Sigh* Earth is going to be the new battlefield for the war."

*Zing*

Byeol immediately placed his sword on the Ruler's neck.

"Say another wrong thing and your soul will be erased from this universe."

"Let me finish." The Ruler declared as he lightly grabbed the sword with his fingers and pushed it away from his neck.

"It is not our choice where the war happens. It depends on the Monarchs. They choose worlds where there is sentient life present, so that it becomes difficult for us to fight them while we are also protecting the native organisms."

"What about the gates?"

"Those are created by us to send monsters to this world. And before you try to kill me again, it is for the benefit of the humans. The gates help in supplying mana to this manaless world, to help this world survive the battle of higher beings like the Monarchs and Rulers."

"..." Byeol didn't say anything. He realised that the Rulers don't gain anything from protecting the humans but they still try to do it. He couldn't fault them for it.

"What about the humans that you all have possessed?"

""Possessed'' would be a wrong word. "Sharing" would be more appropriate. We let some humans use our powers while the humans retain their free will. Don't worry about your father, we will do nothing to harm him."

"Hmm. Understood. Now, can you return me back?"

"Of course." Saying that, the Ruler waves his arm, letting the dimension shift back onto the normal plane of reality.

The Ruler's body disappeared and Go Gun Hee's body was revealed.

"Hmm? What just happened? What was tha-"

"FORGET." Byeol declared. His father's eyes immediately turned white but quickly returned their colour.

"So? Where was I? Ah, yes. The Government will hold a conference and we need to go. Would you want to or do you have some other plans?"

Byeol looked outside the window and saw the quiet and almost ghostly city of Washington. Many people had evacuated, while many others still didn't want to leave their homes in fear.

"I will be going too." Byeol said as he picked up the shirt and trousers that were kept beside his bed.

.........…

AN: Not really satisfied with this chapter. But I needed an Info Dump to happen.