895

 [Chapter 222]

[A Handful of Light (5)]

Changwon, Baek Seo-jin's secret chamber.

The battle was coming to an end.

When Ryu Yeon-hwa defeated <Abyss >, Choi Eun-hyuk and Nam Gung Seong-un also won against their respective opponents.

"Thank you for everything until now."

Kang Hyeon-cheol's body tilts.

The threads connected at each joint snap, finally finding freedom in death.

Thus, Kang Hyeon-cheol's corpse fell to the ground with a thud.

Choi Eun-hyuk deeply bowed his head while mourning his death.

"Rest in peace."

<Yama > Kang Hyeon-cheol was strong.

But <Yama > Kang Hyeon-cheol who had become someone's puppet was not strong.

Choi Eun-hyuk had no doubt that was the reason he won against him.

If <Yama > had been alive, he would surely have lost.

That's how much Choi Eun-hyuk paid respect to Kang Hyeon-cheol's strength.

And now he prayed for him to depart to a comfortable place, relieved of all burdens.

Around that time─

"─You, you bastaaaaard!!!"

"I don't think I'm old enough to be called a bastard by you, youngster."

The battle between Nam Gung Seong-un and Lee Dong-hyuk also finally reached its conclusion.

Nam Gung Seong-un's spear pierced through the corpses, and further pierced Lee Dong-hyuk who was protected by them.

Whatever Lee Dong-hyuk shouted while coughing blood, the fight was already over.

And from that point on, good news was heard from everywhere.

[<Divine Spear> has defeated <Abyss >!]

[Jin Pa-rang over! I, Jin Pa-rang, really defeated Mastema! Confirmed, Mastema's annihilation confirmed! Obtained the soul stone.]

[Message from Twelve Seat <Silent >. Mine Barbatos, subjugated. Annihilation confirmed. Soul stone acquired. This was Jin Seo-na.]

News that came one after another.

The players fighting on the frontlines soon heard this news and shouted cheers.

The Slayers could tell how the tide of battle was flowing just from that.

And then, another piece of good news struck the frontlines.

"Halphas, it hurts... Stop cutting."

"Cutting what can't be seen is quite tricky."

Mine Halphas was also dying.

He, cut into several pieces, was slowly recovering.

Mok Min-ho calmly muttered while looking at him sticking to the wall as if afraid of him.

The battle was almost one-sided.

Halphas overwhelmed the situation by emitting lightning for a moment, but Mok Min-ho's sword cut through a streak of lightning.

After that, he cut through everything.

"This time I'll cut you properly."

Almost single-handedly.

Mok Min-ho overwhelmed Halphas.

There was no reason he couldn't overwhelm Halphas, who was lower in rank than the Seven Devils.

Moreover, although he was overshadowed by Noh Eun-ha and Ryu Yeon-hwa, he was undoubtedly a strong person.

He had shown his skills since his academy days, fully proving his ability and talent.

That bloomed brilliantly after the final battle with Armageddon.

So─

─Gift <Severance Principle>

There is nothing he can't cut.

Something that could be called a soul.

Having reached a state of no-self, he could finally see something that made Halphas exist.

He cuts that.

His sword cleanly cut that, shattering Halphas into pieces.

"Don't... want to die..."

Before Halphas could finish his words.

He annihilates.

He disappears, becoming particles of mana.

Eventually, only a soul stone remained in that place.

"...What a monster."

At that time, <Winter Cypress Sword> Kim Cheol-sik, who had been covering Mok Min-ho from behind, stuck out his tongue and muttered.

He was nothing short of a monster.

Although said to be lower in rank than the Seven Devils, the opponent was still a Mine.

He overwhelms that Mine from start to finish and cuts what others can't see.

Kim Cheol-sik was at a loss for words at a sight he had never seen before.

He was truly the <Sword Saint>.

☆

Im Baek-yeon intruded at the last moment.

She activated her gift, shaking Baek Seo-jin's myth.

Eun-ha didn't miss that moment and shattered his cracked myth.

As a result, the world returned to normal and his body felt lighter.

Strength is returning.

The darkness cut by the Dawn Sword disappears like bubbles.

As the results created by Baek Seo-jin's myth are undone, people devoured by the myth appear one by one.

Hiss!!

Buldak also revealed itself.

The cloak of flames fluttered on his shoulders, scattering embers around.

Eun-ha welcomed the return of his beast transformation and welcomed the situation where he could use magic again.

"Why did you come in so dangerously?" "<Star-Counting Witch> unnie said I could erase it with my power. Oppa, but your eye..."

"Blood is coming from my eyelid. It'll heal if I wash it, so don't worry."

"It doesn't seem like just that level... Are you really okay?"

Meanwhile, Eun-ha spoke to Im Baek-yeon behind him.

Although the battle was all over, it was still in the middle of the battlefield.

Eun-ha stood in a stance to protect her while worrying about Im Baek-yeon's safety.

Of course, Im Baek-yeon worried more about Eun-ha's safety.

"Hermit noona." "Yes, Clan Lord." "Take Baek-yeon and leave. Thanks for helping." "Don't I need to stay? I want to be of help to oppa too..." "You've already been plenty of help. We were able to come this far thanks to you, Baek-yeon."

It was dangerous to leave Im Baek-yeon here as is.

Although the tide of battle had turned, this was still a battlefield.

As long as Slayers remained, they couldn't be completely at ease.

"Still, thank you for helping."

But Eun-ha wanted to convey these words to Im Baek-yeon.

In his previous life, and in this life.

He had received a lot of help from her.

It was the same now.

If she hadn't intervened, the battle might have been more difficult.

To this, Im Baek-yeon's answer was concise.

"Hmph, then let's go eat macarons together when this is over."

"You'll get fat doing that."

"Tch, I'm still growing so it's fine? I'll just eat one. It's a promise."

"Alright, I'll remember. Let's go eat macarons after it's over."

Those macarons.

A tone that seemed to be acting prim.

Eun-ha chuckled.

Around that time, Hermit interjected at the timing when the conversation was ending.

"Then we'll be going now." "Wait a moment, Hermit unnie. Can't we stay here just a little longer? I want to see the end before leaving."

"But... Clan Lord."

"...Okay, I got it. But Baek-yeon, you have to stay by Hermit noona's side."

She wants to see the end before leaving.

Eun-ha wasn't unaware of who 'the end' she spoke of referred to.

It's the end of Baek Seo-jin, who tried to stage a coup in this country.

'I suppose Baek-yeon has the right to know too.'

She would become the Fairy someday.

So she probably wants to confirm Baek Seo-jin's death with her own eyes.

After deliberation, Eun-ha allowed it.

To this, he left the two behind and approached Baek Seo-jin.

""""...."""

With a large wound on his chest.

Baek Seo-jin was kneeling.

Moreover, Kang's iron chains were even restraining his limbs.

"Eun-ha... you..."

"Yes."

As his myth was crumbling.

Baek Seo-jin was dying.

He seemed to have gone blind.

He moved his lips with a somewhat dazed face.

Eun-ha answered briefly.

He's annihilating.

Eun-ha examined Baek Seo-jin's condition.

Baek Seo-jin's lower body was turning into particles and melting into the atmosphere.

That speed was gradually increasing.

Having been defeated by him, Baek Seo-jin could no longer maintain his myth.

To think he did this knowing he would annihilate to the myth.

It can't be anything but an incredible obsession.

Once or twice.

That would have been the number of times Baek Seo-jin could manifest his myth.

Yet he tried to overthrow this country while prepared for annihilation.

Even if he won, he wouldn't live long, and if he lost, he would face annihilation and die on the spot.

Eun-ha couldn't understand.

"Someone like me must be incomprehensible to you."

As if reading his thoughts.

Baek Seo-jin gave a faint smile.

"But it had to be done." "..."

"Because that's what a myth is."

Players approach.

They point weapons at Baek Seo-jin, preparing for any possibility.

Noh Eun-ah treats Eun-ha.

Baek Seo-jin chuckled.

"A myth is the culmination of my ideals, justice, obsession, and resolve. Something that can truly be called the power of a god, which insignificant humans can't do anything about."

"..."

"That's why the subject and object become reversed."

Baek Seo-jin said.

Humans seek their own myth.

That myth becomes the person's life itself, and the path they must walk from now on.

Before finding their myth, humans can live a very free life, but after finding it, that becomes impossible.

Because living in a way that violates the myth would negate that person's existence.

"In the end, it means that people who have embodied a myth must continue to live in a way that doesn't violate that myth. It's like being wielded by the myth while trying to wield it."

That's the reversal of subject and object.

As a result of obtaining power that doesn't match their capacity, humans have their existence captured by that power.

Baek Seo-jin was like that, and so was Eun-ha.

People who embodied myths couldn't escape this fate.

"Therefore, there could be no compromise. Even though the situation was already tilting in your favor, I... couldn't stay still to maintain my existence." "..."

"For me to acknowledge you as <Lord > would be equivalent to denying my own myth."

Baek Seo-jin's myth is to reign as the true ruler of this country.

That's why he couldn't ignore the situation where Eun-ha was hailed as <Lord >.

Even while prepared for his own defeat, he had to stage a coup to protect his ideals and myth.

"But I lost like this. I thought I had finally cornered you... I never imagined that child would intrude at that moment."

So he thought he had created a situation where he could surely win.

An unpredicted variable ended up destroying his plan.

Baek Seo-jin couldn't help but laugh even as his myth was annihilating.

"In the end, you won. You, who was chosen by that child, won."

Thus his ideals came to an end.

Having lost everything, Baek Seo-jin now had to purely acknowledge.

"Eun-ha, you can truly be called the lord of this country."

"...!!"

At that moment, Baek Seo-jin's words resonated.

The world's will responded to his words.

Eun-ha flinched at the situation that followed.

"...What are you thinking?"

Baek Seo-jin's annihilating myth.

Part of that myth began to flow into Eun-ha's body.

Baek Seo-jin had passed on his myth.

Faced with such a sudden situation, Eun-ha had no choice but to ask his intention.

Then Baek Seo-jin answered with a weak smile.

"A blessing for the victor." "..."

"And a curse."

Baek Seo-jin's body disappears.

He shrugs his shoulders.

"As a myth grows, the scope of restrictions by that myth also increases. Yet you have received my myth, swelling the size of your myth."

"..."

"My myth will surely give you power that no one else can touch in this country, but at the same time, it will give you restrictions."

Just as I was captured by the myth.

You too will be caught by that myth and sometimes have to walk a path you don't want.

Baek Seo-jin said so.

"The myth of lord and darkness. From now on, you will be bound to a fate of living a life befitting that myth. And perhaps someday you may make the same choice as me."

So, usurper.

The beginning may be grand and magnificent, but at the end, a very insignificant ideal will be strangling you.

Baek Seo-jin spat out with a chuckle.

He moved his lips with difficulty.

"You too will have to live desperately struggling, trembling in fear not to lose that position. Go on, struggle desperately not to have that position taken away."

"..."

At the end of his annihilation, Baek Seo-jin poured out encouragement and curses to Eun-ha.

Eun-ha just listened quietly.

He had plenty to say in rebuttal to Baek Seo-jin's curses.

But Eun-ha also sensed that his own ending wouldn't be good.

Baek Seo-jin disappearing like bubbles before his eyes was also his future self.

Therefore, nevertheless, he decided to live his given life to the fullest─

It was then that Im Baek-yeon opened her mouth.

"─Oppa will be different."

"...Baek-yeon?"

Im Baek-yeon suddenly grabbed his hand.

She didn't respond to Eun-ha's call and was looking at Baek Seo-jin.

Then Baek Seo-jin's gaze, losing light, also moved to her.

Im Baek-yeon met that gaze, gripping Eun-ha's hand tightly and said.

No, she declared.

"As long as I'm here, I won't let anyone touch him."

Words have power.

Sometimes they are realized in reality.

Something that could be called a word of power.

A realm of mystery that can't be completely resolved by reason, logic, and science.

Or a realm dismissed as superstition.

But sometimes superstition becomes the most powerful magic of all.

"...Yes, that might be so."

That's why Baek Seo-jin couldn't outright deny her declaration.

From the start, Baek Seo-jin's curse was no different from a word of power.

"I really... have lost..."

In the end, Baek Seo-jin could only laugh with a deflated sound.

He looked at the two, and finally closed his eyes and smiled.

It was a face with no more lingering attachments.

"Your myth is not yet complete. To realize this only now, perhaps I would have lost even if that child hadn't intruded."

Leaving those words.

Baek Seo-jin was about to face annihilation.

Originally, that's how it would have been.

"─Don't be ridiculous, who decides that."

However, Eun-ha did not wish for Baek Seo-jin's end to finish like this.