Chapter 666 – Longing (4)
I once heard these words.
-“Exorcism is the beginning and end of a Demon Hunter.”
Although Akshan was full of boasts, that one sentence was true.
In a world that repeated in an instant, hundreds, thousands, too many to count, where I could live as myself, it was all thanks to the exorcism.
Everything began from ‘arrogance.’
“Pride? I cannot accept it.”
More accurately, it was because of my own arrogance.
“Demons are, after all, just demons.”
I broke Akshan’s decision and set off alone to hunt him. Naturally. As a mere rookie, I failed miserably at the hunt.
Buried in the endless darkness during the exorcism.
“…?”
And when I regained consciousness, it was my second life.
“…Demons are, after all, just demons.”
The moment I uttered those words, I recalled every memory of my first life. Perhaps that was due to the Demon Hunter’s persistence. The Demon Hunter and the Demon. Two consciousnesses coexisting in the exorcism. The defeat from my previous life deeply etched into my mind.
In the renewed opportunity, I thought I was the protagonist of the world. Why, like the hero of a common story, I thought I could hunt the demon who had led to my defeat and correct the world’s destruction.
“Demons are demons…”
Is that why? After another failure, in the third life, I couldn’t even finish my words in shock. Since then, my returns had been repeated. In that process, I realized.
I am not the protagonist of this world. No matter how much I flounder, I am in a position where I can never touch the tail end of that grand attire. ‘Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo.’
Someone would probably say:
Akshan’s hunter, if you’re going to succumb to the demons, why did you call yourself their natural enemy? If you’re trapped in an infinitely repeating cycle, shouldn’t you take advantage of it as a Demon Hunter?
The Demon Hunter, without ‘tenacity,’ is just a corpse, right?
If so, at this point, someone else would ask:
Isn’t it too detailed for someone to know so much about a Demon Hunter?
That’s right. I had heard that from another Akshan like myself.
“I will trust your past.”
“!”
Thanks to Grandfell, the Arcana Continent has been repeating infinitely, and I, arrogantly breaking the rules, attempted exorcism on Grandfell, thus riding the cycle.
“…Do you really trust me?”
“I will trust you.”
“I feel like a fool for having doubted…”
Akshan fully trusted that nonsensical speech. That was when it began. Akshan became my brother.
Of course, it wasn’t easy after that.
‘The efficiency is excessively low.’
The point at which I started remembering previous cycles was fixed. Just because I remembered didn’t mean I could inherit all the abilities I had accumulated in those cycles.
Unlike Grandfell, I was not the protagonist.
“In the end, there’s no choice but that, my brothers.”
So I made a decision.
If Grandfell was the protagonist of this world, then I would become the villain endlessly tormenting the protagonist. In that sense, for a while, the cycles were filled with disgusting struggles.
However.
“Bael.”
In the end, I grabbed hold.
“Is this my new name?”
I had fallen and returned, finally sitting on the first throne. It must have been thanks to that anomaly power.
In the subsequent cycles, I could continue to exist as Bael.
Although I could not escape the endlessly turning wheel, from the moment it started spinning, I could remember what happened.
I could also preserve the powers I accumulated from each cycle, unlike when I was human.
Perhaps that’s why. I slowly lost my humanity.
Yes, Akshan too. Other demons. Even the Ten Thrones, I transformed into beings that could not be understood.
But tragically.
“…What are you?”
Even after repeating countless cycles, I still could not reach Grandfell. The endless defeat was enough to blur even the twisted obsession of a corrupted Demon Hunter.
“Grandfell.”
From some point onward, I had come to see you, whom I had considered prey to be hunted, as my only understanding. Only you, Grandfell, had been my companion in this cycle.
Therefore, Grandfell, I wanted to understand you.
To get closer to you.
If I could get closer to you.
As I smashed the world as much as I could, I asked the question.
“Isn’t it meaningless?”
Cruel?
Personal feelings have long since become meaningless. No matter how much I trample them, in the next cycle, the world will return to its original state. It will flow again as if nothing happened.
Still, the answer did not come. Thus, another cycle seemed to be coming to an end.
Before I recognized the existence of ‘Lee Hoyeol.’
“…Wait.”
Suddenly, I thought.
Perhaps it wasn’t Grandfell who was turning the wheel.
Perhaps it was just a worthless human who had stumbled upon it.
“That can’t be.”
But it was a mere speculation.
This cycle was not just a reversal.
It was not a small reversal limited to a specific world.
A complete ‘reversal,’ where every axis spins backward…
“…Reversal?”
The light that illuminated Bael, drifting in his own curse, was Grandfell’s Evil Eye.
At that moment, Bael was able to be certain.
“Finally, you are looking at me.”
Indeed, his assumptions were not wrong.
‘The threat I felt from him was not an illusion.’
Thus, the answer came easily. To escape the meaningless cycle, one must eliminate the one who turns the cycle. The one who had been turning the cycle was not Grandfell, but…
“…!”
But Bael’s thoughts stopped at that point.
【Objective Eye】
The light shining on Bael was neither moonlight nor starlight rising in the dark sky. A dazzlingly cold silver light illuminated Bael, whose humanity and evil had been dulled by countless cycles.
…Blankly.
It finally made him look at his own form.
Thanks to that.
Bael realized.
So, I had forgotten my purpose.
Twinkle.
The brooch on his chest reflected the brilliant silver light.
It was the symbol of a wolf’s head made of silver.
The emblem of Akshan, the Demon Hunter.
“Thank you, Grandfell.”
Thanks to that, I realized.
The reason I rose to the position of one of the Ten Thrones, the reason I repeated the cycles, was all to hunt demons like you. That was the pride I, an inexperienced Demon Hunter, carried out. Bael straightened his knees and stood up.
There was no reversal. Whether Bael realized it or not, the fact that Grandfell was an existence that could never be reached remained unchanged. Bael muttered.
“…In the next life, what face should I look at you with?”
The situation had become awkward.
It would have been better if I hadn’t sat on the first throne. Then, like ‘that man,’ I could have forgotten everything and lived believing I was ordinary.
Now, I must live the next life remembering this one.
Bael sincerely spoke.
“I no longer have the courage to point my sword at you.”
Had I lost the pride of a Demon Hunter?
No, the effect of Akshan’s wolf emblem still held.
The natural enemy relationship between demons and Demon Hunters was not denied.
For what reason, then, Bael smiled faintly.
“In the end, your pride seems to have tainted me.”
Who was the demon, and who was the Demon Hunter?
In the last life, Bael had destroyed countless worlds to reach Grandfell. Even if the fact that the world was repeatedly destroyed became nothing, Bael’s original sin would not disappear.
And what about Grandfell?
At the final moment, I learned that it was not Grandfell who pulled the trigger. I realized that Grandfell had no original sin. If there was a sin, it was only that he was born into the Claudi family.
“I already know, but I will tell you with my own mouth.”
And that sin had already been forgiven, hadn’t it?
“Akshan has forgiven you in every life, Grandfell.”
…Thud.
At that point, Bael lowered his sword. He could no longer find the purpose of the cycle. What would he live for in the next cycle? He couldn’t answer.
Bael thought.
‘Lonely.’
He had only chased demons, and now, he would face the end alone. A fitting end for a Demon Hunter. The moment Bael smiled bitterly.
-I promise.
The voice came.
“…?”
-I will promise.
“!”
It was Grandfell’s voice.
-There will be no next time.
At that word, Bael was silent for a moment.
…So that was it.
Then, he looked at the eye and smiled.
“Did you have the same thought as me?”
Softly.
As he closed his eyes, the past worlds appeared in a flash. This cycle definitely felt different. I, too, would face a different end.
Soon, Bael opened his eyes again.
Then, the broken demon world appeared before him.
As Bael’s end drew near, the complete collapse of the demon world was imminent.
‘The world will fall into chaos again.’
The demon world.
It could be aptly described as the belly of a giant beast.
Then, it could naturally be speculated.
When the beast’s belly rips open,
What form will the swallowed beings take as they pour out?
Bael’s vision saw them. The survivors, stained with evil, no longer resembled their former selves. What remained was only pure resentment.
However, Bael’s heart was peaceful, even now, before the Cataclysm. It was because he had heard it.
This life would be his last.
And.
“They’re here.”
Flicker.
He had seen it as well.
The green flames flickering beyond the collapsing demon world.
As Bael aligned with the scenery, he left his last words.
Grandfell, and Akshan from Hell.
“My brothers.”
The corrupted Demon Hunter had come to the end.
“Let me get behind you.”
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There was something I used to say to Grandfell out of habit.
-“You’re a man who’s guilty in many ways, Grandfell?”
The next time I reunite with Grandfell, perhaps the first thing I’ll do is apologize for that… Maybe it’s the effect of the [Demon Hunter’s Emblem] given to me by Shegwin.
Even though I entered the third trial, I didn’t faint.
Thanks to that, I was able to face the harsh truth.
Without turning my eyes away, I was able to confront it.
-You killed us.
-You destroyed my world.
-By your choice, everything collapsed.
I was able to face the original sins that crushed me, Lee Hoyeol, not Grandfell. I, Lee Hoyeol, don’t think I lived so shamelessly.
‘Because of who…’
I had once pretended to be shameless for a while, but I didn’t really live arrogantly.
But I thought logically.
Hell wouldn’t lie, would it?
It wouldn’t have any reason to whisper only to me.
So, I thought.
‘…Is my memory really intact?’
To those restless, vengeful souls whispering to me, I apologize, but I tried to close my ears and seriously think. If my memory was wrong, I tried to figure out where it went wrong.
‘Wait a minute.’
Then, I realized.
‘…Was it from the setting?’
More precisely, I had questions about the setting concerning Grandfell and the Claudi family. In the past, as I learned more about Grandfell and the Claudi family, I had fallen into doubt.
Did I really write such a setting?
This cringe-worthy thing?
This unnecessarily bleak thing?
I vaguely remembered it, but I couldn’t be sure.
Damn, this is so frustrating.
I should’ve checked it back then, the black history notebook.
‘Why did my sister take it to her room?’
So, can’t you be a little more considerate…? I’m still suffering from the dark past of being a second-year middle schooler, so can’t you just tell me straight out about that damned original sin…!!
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I couldn’t bring myself to face it.
“…Because I felt like a fool.”
But as an older sister, I had to gather courage.
It seems like Hoyeol, right now,
was in a situation as difficult as back then.
Lee Yerim took a deep breath and grabbed the notebook.
As she turned the page, dense writing appeared in her sight.
──────
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…
──────
What has made you so miserable, Hoyeol…?
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