I couldn’t help but stand dumbfoundedly in shock after hearing the World Tree.How could I not do that after hearing such a thing?
“My mother is a calamity?”
According to the World Tree, a calamity was a delegate that was brought upon the world by the world itself, to get rid of all lives in the world.
If the Blood Demon was the first calamity to exist, then the second that came into my mind was obviously the Heavenly Demon.
“What nonsense are you speaking of right now?”
I couldn’t help but get angrier.
It wasn’t the Heavenly Demon, but my mother instead?
“Do you think that makes any sense?”
[ Calm down, apostle. ]
“You are telling me to calm down?”Blaze.
I couldn’t suppress my boiling emotions, and flames came out of my body without me being able to control them.
It was the first time I let my boiling anger take control of my actions after reaching Peak Realm.
I’ve wondered what the beast inside me was for a long time.
It was certainly possible that it existed even in my past life.
I also was able to understand that the beast only woke up in this life, because of the power I gained from the giant snake.
I did my best to try and understand everything.
However,
“The calamity…”
The existence that destroys the world for the principles.
That shouldn’t be my mother.
Slam.
I kicked the ground out of anger, and it formed a crack and made a small crater.
“…Where did you get such nonsensical information from?”
I tried my best to cool down my head and speak, but it wasn’t easy.
I didn’t think that my beloved mother would be mentioned in a story like this, and I was already too confused because I heard too much information at once.
Even so, I had to ask.
Now was the only time I was able to hear such information.
“Why do you see my mother as calamity?”
[ Apostle. ]
“Yes.”
The World Tree remained calm despite me speaking with anger.
It seemed as if it knew that I was going to show such a reaction.
[ What do you think a calamity is? ]
“…You explained it all just now, didn’t you?”
The tree said that it was a delegate sent by the world.
I’ve heard it at least three times by now.
The World Tree started to explain after hearing my response.
[ Then where do you think such an existence comes from? ]
“Pardon?”
I had to put on a confused expression after hearing the World Tree.
Where they come from?
[ In order to learn about your mother, we must first look into what they are. ]
“What do you mean by that?”
To learn what a calamity is?
I worked by brain to figure out what that meant, but the World Tree told me the answer, as if it was telling me not to.
[ A calamity is… ]
[ A ruler from another world. ]
I opened my eyes in shock after hearing the World Tree.
Based on what the tree said, it meant that the Blood Demon or my mother if she truly was a calamity, were rulers from other worlds.
Judging by how the beast inside me was also a ruler, I didn’t think that all rulers had the same appearance as the one in front of me, which was a giant tree.
But putting aside that fact,
“…My mother wasn’t a human to begin with?”
I remembered my mother’s face that always had a kind smile plastered on it.
In my memories, she was just an ordinary lady who didn’t differ from anyone else.
She was a kind woman who loved taking care of children, enjoyed all seasons, and had love for flowers.
If she was a calamity that should’ve ended all lives in the world I lived in,
“…That’s not possible. Then how come my world is so peaceful?”
Then my world shouldn’t have been this peaceful right now.
Moreover, is a ruler from another world even allowed to leave their own world to go to another one?
If the calamity came, and that was my mother,
What about my father?
I clenched my fist after that thought reached my mind.
If this story was true, then did my father know all of this?
“Mother was an ordinary lady. She wasn’t a calamity.”Whether it was the Blood Demon or the Heavenly Demon, I was able to know that they weren’t ordinary human just by looking at their absolute strengths.
That’s why even after hearing from the World Tree, I didn’t think that it was strange for the Blood Demon to be a ruler from another world.
However, I couldn’t understand how my mother could have been the calamity no matter how much I thought about it.
If that really is the case,
Then it means I too am not a human.
It made me question even my own identity.
[ Your mother is indeed a calamity. ]
“And I’m asking why you think that way.” [ … ]
The World Tree fell in silence for a moment after I argued.
After a moment of silence, the World Tree reached its roots out towards me, brushed my hair as if it was feeling sorry, then spoke.
[ To put it more accurately, she was a ruler of a world that had already disappeared. But I think it’d be right for you to hear this from your father rather than me. ]
“…What?”
In the end, I had to be shocked after hearing the tree’s response.
“You are telling me father knows this as well?”
I didn’t know how many years it has been ever since I spoke the word ‘father’ out loud.
If I included time from my past life as well, then it was an extremely long time.
That showed just how shocking this was.
Also,
“Which means… you also know my father.”
It meant that the World Tree knew my father as well.
Just where did it start going wrong?
[ … ]
The World Tree fell in silence often.
I didn’t know why it became silent, but I despised that silence especially now.
The World Tree seemed to have realized that my patience has reached its limit, because it finally started to speak.
[ It was a very long time ago. ]
For the World Tree, this happened very long ago.
[ It was when your father found this place. ]
“Father came to this place?”
[ Yes, he was holding the hand of a white-haired lady. ]
White-haired lady?
Who was the tree referring to?
I thought about my mother for an instant, but she had black hair and black pupils.
[ I didn’t know how a human was able to find this place on purpose. All I was able to do was just fall in shock. ]
He came purposely?
How was that possible?
I wouldn’t have been able to come here if it weren’t for Cheol Jiseon’s power.
This wasn’t some ordinary Abyss.
It was shocking to hear the story.
[ I was able to know immediately after seeing them. That lady was the second calamity. ]
“…!”Does that mean that the white-haired lady the World Tree spoke of was my mother?
But my mother’s hair color wasn’t…
It wasn’t that color.
[ I didn’t know why the lady came looking for me. She shouldn’t have had any reason to look for me. ]
The previous ruler was incarcerated and no longer existed in the world, so all she had to do was erase all lives in it if she really was a calamity, yet she went looking for the World Tree.
“…What did she want for her to visit you?”
[ She asked me how to get rid of her burden. ]
The World Tree was saying that my mother wanted to escape from the burden she was tasked with.
“Is such a thing… possible?”
The principles of the world were so important that the World Tree was punished and became stuck in this place.
Yeon Il-Cheon succeeded in going back in time thanks to the World Tree, but he failed to kill the Blood Demon completely, and was only able to seal it.
But was there a way to get rid of the calamity’s burden?
[ No, it is impossible. ]
The World Tree gave me the answer I expected.
Even in my human eyes…
No, I wasn’t even sure if I could even call myself human anymore, but putting that aside, I didn’t know if such a thing was possible.
Then,
[ However, I believed that it might be different with your mother. ]
“Pardon?”
[ When you first asked what your burden and what the existence inside you was, I said that you must first learn about your mother. ]
The tree indeed did say that.
[ Not all rulers… could be the same. ]
They can’t be the same?
If my mother really was a ruler like the Blood Demon and the World Tree, then was there something different about her?
I still couldn’t believe the fact that my mother wasn’t human.
I also couldn’t think of her as a whole different existence, like the World Tree I was currently talking to.
No matter how much I thought about it, my mother was just an ordinary lady in my mind.
I continued to stare at the World Tree without being able to believe any of this.
However, the World Tree spoke as if it wasn’t concerned about my gaze.
[만계(萬界)의 주인.]
[ The ruler of Ten Thousand Lands. ]
[ That is your mother’s true name. ]
“…”Just hearing such a name made me think that she wasn’t an ordinary existence.
******************In a basement filled with cold air, a lady wearing a face cover had her head down.
She was a lady who was called by the title, ‘Dancer’.
She didn’t possess any other name.
That was what her master called her, so that was her name.
The Dancer continued to breathe without moving even the slightest bit.
How long has it been?
It was only a few seconds which was only an instant for others, but that wasn’t the case for her.
Her master left this spot which was like a nest for her master.
That concerned her greatly, so the Dancer only continued to wait for her master with her head down.
Then,
Thud.
A big vibration echoed in the room along with a sound.
Rumble.
Dust began falling from the ceiling due to the vibration and it dirtied the Dancer’s hair, but she still didn’t move an inch.
After a short time of few seconds,
Swoosh…
When the fog floating on top of the floor became denser, the Dancer lifted her head up and looked forward.
Woong.
Something started to vibrate behind the fog in front of her.
A light shined very dimly.
[ Not bad. ]
The return of her master, and his voice tickled the Dancer’s ears.
It sounded as if he was in a good mood.
“…Are you okay?”
The Dancer asked in a worrying tone.
It was understandable, as her master wasn’t allowed to leave this place recklessly.
[ I am more than okay. I just learned about something very amusing. ]
The Blood Demon continued to speak in a satisfying tone.
[ Only a trace was left, so I wondered what happened… how amusing. ]
Only a tiny trace was left and nothing else was left on him.
Because of that, the Blood Demon had been wondering what the ruler of this world did, and why the exiled existence got in his way.
[ It was for a more pointless reason than I thought. ]
The ruler was exiled because it broke the world’s principles.
Yet, it was struggling its best to help this world in any way.
Whichever it was,
[ It is not bad. ]
Even if it is able to break the world’s principles, the world will not allow that, and it will bring the world back to normal.
It was amusing for the Blood Demon to see the previous ruler fighting against the path that was set by the world.
However,
[ It is a problem that I paid a higher price than I expected. ]
The Blood Demon felt changes occurring to itself.
It had to use an extreme amount of strength to send its consciousness into a world where the previous ruler was.
Moreover, it had to use even more strength to put its consciousness into a lifeless body.
[ Dancer. ]
“Yes.”
The Dancer lifted her face up after hearing the Blood Demon.
[ Prepare the scale. ]
The Dancer’s shoulders flinched after hearing the Blood Demon.
This meant that the Blood Demon who hid itself for a very long time, was going to take an action directly.
“By that, you mean…”
[ It seems like the time I’ve been waiting for, will come earlier than I expected. ]
The Blood Demon’s voice was filled with joy.
It was so joyful that it was the first time the Dancer heard the Blood Demon speak like this.
After hearing her master, the Dancer carefully responded.
“…What action should be taken on the vessel?”
[ Vessel, huh? ]
The Blood Demon needed a body if it wanted to take action directly itself.
The Dancer knew the answer to the question she asked.
There were many ways for the Blood Demon to move.
It was just that the Blood Demon didn’t want such methods.
Right as the Dancer was about to stand up to look for a method,
[ The child of the Taeryung Clan has died. ]
The Dancer had to become frozen after hearing her master.
There was already a problem with Namgung Cheonjun, but there was lots of meaning for the child of Taeryung Clan dying.
Especially for the Dancer who knew about ‘its’ identity.
[ It didn’t seem to have met its death fully, but that will certainly happen. ]
The Blood Demon speaking in such a way, meant that he would end up dying ‘again’ even if he wasn’t fully dead now.
After hearing her master, the Dancer slowly looked up to the Blood Demon and spoke.
“I shall prepare a new body, as well as memor- “
[ No, there is no need. ]
The Dancer looked back at the Blood Demon in confusion.
Why was the Blood Demon refusing it?
Jang Seonyeon’s existence was still needed for the Blood Demon’s goal.
That was why he was kept alive even if it was difficult.
So why did the Blood Demon give such an answer?
The Dancer stared at the Blood Demon with a confused expression,
[ I’ve retrieved the soul and memory, but there is no need to put the memory into the body. ]
And the Blood Demon responded to answer the Dancer’s question.
[ I shall go in it myself. ]