◈ Episode 557. Everything depends on what you think (1)
ttogag.
Heavenly Demon Reign [Master]: The demon king of the fourth throne. His stride is imbued with untold power. Your steps, each and every one of them, will contain history].
He stepped into the Heavenly Demon Reign.
The words I said come to mind.
After all, is it not possible?
‘I will not lose anything or anyone anymore.’
Suddenly, I hear Mrs. Choi’s voice.
-“It’s been a long time since Hoyeol brought anyone home.”
Other people.
My ‘past’ that even my family doesn’t know about.
You do know, don’t you, Grandfell?
In that sense, I ask you seriously.
Nothing more.
My wish is not to lose anyone.
In the end, was it just an illusion?
‘…….’
I knew this early on.
Maybe that’s why I turned away in desperation.
I didn’t have much of a connection with the players, or the Arcanians. They could leave me at any time and betray me, and I wouldn’t be hurt.
Like in the past.
In a way, that was the real pressure.
To be honest?
I still haven’t gotten over it.
I still think about it sometimes.
Senios’s childlike smile every time I manifested Anomlay, [『Absolute Zero』].
Harkon’s two legs every time I step onto the battlefield.
Yugweed’s voice whenever I look at the night view of Seoul.
So it was not an easy choice.
To accept the Shadow Mercenaries as the demon hunters of Akshan.
Others might ask if that’s a hard thing to do.
For me, it wasn’t.
But in the end, it was a burden I was willing to bear.
And this is the result.
I have failed, Grandfell.
The Shadow Mercenaries, Akshan’s people.
It was then.
“It’s not an illusion.”
Grandfell opened his mouth.
“It all depends on what you think.”
…… Really, huh?
‘It all depends on what you think.’
What the hell are you talking about?
Normally, I wouldn’t have snorted, but this time, I wanted to believe. I wanted to believe in Grandfell’s snout, at least for this moment on the way to the Pantheon.
And I did.
Once, twice, dozens of times.
Former members of the Shadow Mercenaries, dying and dying and still clutching the God of War. I didn’t have to wonder how the dead were coming back to life.
“……Why?”
A vision flashes with Kichi’s voice.
[The ‘Shadow Contract’ belongs to you.]
You’ve made a contract again, everyone.
And you, Shadow God.
You left that contract to me.
Grandfell’s way of speaking begins to make sense.
-“It’s all about what you think.”
Indeed.
One might think the Shadow Mercenaries are alive and well, but I’m afraid I’ve seen it with my own two eyes.
I saw them rejoice like children at Kichi’s breaking of the contract.
Yes, they were.
After tasting their freedom, they’d thrown themselves back into the pit of shadows. Why? Only a fool could have guessed, from the way Kichi looked at me in disbelief.
It was all for us.
ttogag.
I thought with each step.
‘I get it now.’
From now on.
You couldn’t turn away, Grandfell.
You can’t stand on half-hearted resolve.
Everything has a give and take.
In order to keep something.
You can’t be merciful forever.
“That’s it.”
A voice rings in my head.
《The God of War, it is still right to kill him.》
Unable to deny it, I blurted out.
“As of this hour, it is time for unilateral disposition.”
*
The God of War’s senses were speaking.
ttogag.
The approaching man’s gait is arrogant, his stance is full of holes, and his slender body and gaudy clothing will not be able to withstand my onslaught.
It whispered incessantly.
But.
……shuddered.
The body refused to listen.
The God of War repeated to his senses.
‘It is an incomprehensible being.’
Incomprehensible.
Endless strategies and tactics in his head.
A being that cannot be understood even by God of War senses.
The reason for this judgment was simple.
Guuuuuung.
The pounding of my feet.
The Pantheon was shaking.
To be precise, the countless holy relics that slept in the underground treasury were reacting. The ancient relics were making their presence known to the man.
As if facing their master.
‘…… This can’t be.’
Holy relics.
Gods of gods.
Not even a Goddess could tamper with them.
And rightly so.
The Holy Relic was not something someone created.
The God of War, from the time he first opened his eyes.
Before all the gods existed.
The relic had already existed.
That’s why karma was required.
Only by understanding the meaning of the relics through karma could one come into contact with them. Therefore, the God of War was forced to withdraw.
……jeobeog.
‘Why that man.’
……jeobeog jeobeog.
‘Are they welcoming him as if they were anxiously waiting for him?’
……shuddered.
‘Holy relics, ……!’
Not likely.
Even if the karma of a man is ten thousand.
The Holy Relics would not be the first to respond.
‘Then, is there something that even I know about?’
Between that man and the holy relics?
No.
In that case, I will follow up. As long as the relics were reacting to him, the moment he got his hands on even one of them, the odds were against me.
But that was not the end of it.
‘Where have you hidden, abominable Goddess?’
It would be a different story if I could kill the Goddess who had abandoned the
Pantheon and fled, and steal his karma. Tadadadadak. The god of war ran, never looking back.
kwag.
He grabbed the floating god’s hair and twisted it around like a reins.
And then he dashed out of the Pantheon.
His first reaction to the terror?
Relief rather than shame.
I couldn’t believe my eyes, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“……Bloody hell.”
*
Arcana Continent Biography.
Back when the game was just a game, the process by which most incidents became known to players was similar. First, NPCs would start talking about it, one by one.
In that sense.
“The game’s setting is still valid after the Cataclysm!”
“Don’t you just want to drink more?”
“Are you crazy, do you think I’m some kind of alcoholic?”
“We’ve been killing it here for three hours now, are we?”
Kingdom of Yusra.
The Golden Crown Tavern was packed with eager players. But there was little talk, as if they couldn’t afford it.
An angry voice boomed over the loudspeaker.
-It was an overwhelming victory. The Holy War Alliance has secured an unparalleled victory over the Goddess Church and the Pantheon, and we’re bringing you live footage of it to ……!
My tongue slips out of my mouth.
“More than that, I wrote black history this time because of Lee Hoyeol, because I seriously wrote to the community that this could be a close call, that this could be an unprecedented crisis, that I could stake my life on it, and I was completely stuffed!”
“But why is your hand still attached?”
“……Let’s not be creepy, it spoils the drink.”
I coolly admitted that I was wrong.
I still couldn’t wrap my head around it.
I lamented in frustration.
“But it just doesn’t make sense, doesn’t it? The Goddess Church collapses from within, the All Gods stop revealing themselves, and the item that seemed to be Guyver’s hidden card at the end is useless!”
Yes.
If it was actually Lee Hoyeol.
I thought it could happen.
It didn’t make too much sense, after all.
But it was physically impossible.
No matter what, doesn’t Lee Hoyeol have one body? But how can he move so simultaneously? Unless he literally saw everything and prepared for it……!
“Maybe he did.”
“……?”
Suddenly, a voice from the next table.
“He might have seen it all coming.”
The woman who spoke had a distinctive air about her.
Her long robe covered her entire body.
It did not cover her face, which gave off a strange aura.
‘……Wait a minute, she’s frighteningly pretty.’
The man nodded involuntarily.
“Ah, yes. Definitely Lee Hoyeol could do that!”
The man’s gaze quickly scans the table next to him.
How can this be a coincidence, so let me suggest that we all sit together.
Let’s do the math on that table first…….
Let’s see.
One two three four five six seven bottles……?
Wait, why is it never ending?
What’s with all those bottles on the floor?
‘Even whales would die if they drank that much!’
I’ve been in and out of the Golden Crown Tavern many times, but I’ve never seen so many empty bottles in my life. I thought Rockid, who had a reputation for being a tough guy, could drink that much.
shaking head.
‘That’s beer and this is liquor, right?’
……hikkeug.
A reflexive hiccup.
If you calculate it for joint seating instead.
I’m going to spend all the money I’ve saved by going around the rift.
The man quickly closed his mouth and turned his head.
Oh, I changed my mind.
“Lee Ho-yeol is really amazing, isn’t he? haha.”
“Eh, you idiot.”
“Why, sometimes he’s scary.”
The guy across from me, who doesn’t even realize it.
The woman at the next table.
Mary, the witch of the Southern Sea.
ttoleug.
She refilled her glass once more.
‘I didn’t think there would be anything to do in the future.’
Spacetime Social Hall.
It was the nightmares and visions that kept her sober. The day her people, the Twilight Descendants, were devoured by the Bad Omen.
-Save me, save me.
-Live, live, live, Mary.
-Sister……!!!
She drowned out the screams of that day with alcohol and fell asleep.
And so the Bad Omen fell.
The Twilight Descendants have returned to the Arcana continent once again.
There was no reason for Mary to borrow the drunkenness.
……gulp.
Until now.
A pure-blooded Mage clan, the Twilight Descendant.
Her keen senses read sounds.
The sounds of the human subconscious, to be precise.
-Are you sure you’re okay, with this one.
-It’s not a joke, I’m almost scared now.
-Why, didn’t the Magic Tower warn you last time?
Awe.
Mary knows the meaning of that word better than anyone. The emotion of awe is necessarily accompanied by an emotion called fear, or dread.
‘Without that emotion, you…….’
you can’t look up to someone.
In that sense, the voices I heard were perfectly natural, but even knowing all of that, I……. Mary stared at the empty bottle with wistful eyes.
“I wonder what he’s worried about, me.”
She tilted her glass, but her voice didn’t fade.
-And yet……. I mean, he’s human.
-How long can I trust you, Lee Hoyeol?
-And considering the way he showed himself on Jeju Island……!!!
.
.
.
Click.
I look around the community with a blank stare. It’s all the same nonsense. I fling myself onto my bed, feeling like my eyes are going to rot just watching.
“What the fuck do you think you know.”
Then I glance at the bookshelf.
It’s a particularly thick book.
It was Seongsun Middle School.
It was the 21st graduation album.
Kim Hyunmin bit his thin lips.
“…… About Hoyeol.”