He slashed the sword at a speed that human eyes and human consciousness couldn’t follow. The knife travelled parallel to the horizon of the World of Providence and crushed the shoulder plates of the Colossal Soldier.
Kwagwagwa—
In the blink of an eye the heaven-defying body hurled something down from the sky – the Colossal Soldier’s arm was falling towards Yu Jitae. It was fast, oppressive and dangerous.
Blocking would delay things. He was currently in a greater rush than he had even been in his entire life so he could not block the punch.
After quickly twisting his body, Yu Jitae collided with the Colossal Soldier head-on. He was as small as a toothpick compared to the giant and the pressure was grinding at his Shapeless Sword.
However, Yu Jitae still stood his ground. Even though it felt like his body was being shredded, and even though blood was wetting his eyes, he did not retreat. He crushed the whole fist of the enormous existence and continued creating a deep cut on its arm.
.
.
.
After an intense battle, Yu Jitae defeated the Colossal Soldier.
While the entity as big as a mountain was starting to slowly fall from the sky, Yu Jitae immediately escaped the World of Providence and dashed towards the real world.
Urgency was strangling him by the neck.
That just then had forced him to waste his precious time.
Until now, he had been constantly thinking that something was strange about the actions of the Hostility.
He thought they were way too sloppy.
Hostility had manipulated reality a few times to attack him. Out of those, there were 2 instances where it did manage to put him in an extremely bad mood but that was it. The actions were rather sloppy.
But he could now tell why that was the case.
The reason they touched Ha Saetbyul was to confirm his ‘guilt about the past’. Even though he wasn’t tied down by the past, it definitely did displease him and that information must have been sent to the true body of [Hostility].
After that, it controlled Wei Yan to stand off against Yeorum and Kaeul, killed a girl resembling Kaeul in front of his eyes, and threatened Lair itself to shake his daily actions. All those things annoyed him quite a bit, which must have also been sent to Hostility.
And lastly, it carried out a worldwide terrorist attack during the ‘Second Night’. It was probably to see Yu Jitae’s reaction when humanity had to face danger. However, Yu Jitae had already prepared for that and the enemy was easily suppressed by the Association’s military and Clone 1. It failed to sway him.
The three targets chosen by [Hostility] were respectively ‘Yu Jitae’, ‘Baby dragons of the 7th iteration’ and the ‘World’.
These three were the elements that could hinder the 7th iteration and after an analysis, it must have decided that the most efficient method was to touch the ‘Baby dragons of the 7th iteration’.
And [Hostility]’s judgement was precisely correct.
Neither his distressful past nor the terrorist attack on the world were able to shake him at the core. There was only one big threat in this iteration that could seize him by the ankle.
It was none other than the baby dragons finding out about his past.
“…”
He had done evil things.
Kidnapping kids that were living happily at the town, he locked them inside the underground labyrinth for decades.
For the sake of experiments, he tied their limbs up, dug through their flesh with a knife and crushed their bones. The unpleasant voices crying out in pain made him thrust a knife into their mouth.
He used violence if they refused to listen to him. A struggling child was slapped and a child who tried to escape had their legs destroyed. Like that, he crushed their hearts.
All those he had continued for at least several decades.
The chief of the black dragon race, ‘Lugiathan’ had encountered Yu Jitae 77 times. Failing almost all of those 77 instances, Yu Jitae endlessly lost his memory fragments.
Out of all the races, black dragons were the only ones that could actively send memories, and dragons did not forget.
All the countless ‘Yeorums’ that could not contain their frustration – they who injured their own bodies like a madman who were then killed by him;
The ‘Kaeuls’ who had constantly been exposed to undisguised hostility, crushed and being forced to cry by herself before eventually committing suicide;
All those ‘Gyeouls’ that powerlessly decayed to death on the spot without ever being able to fulfil the mission given to them;
Innumerable ‘Boms’ that had become an experiment subject, suffering the most pain for the longest period of time;
All those daily lives he had ruined.
Those memories would all be conveyed directly to the baby dragons. Not a single child would be able to withstand it.
His instincts told him that this was not a problem limited to the 7th iteration. If this iteration was to fall to pieces, he would not be able to stand back up.
The bond that he had built up with much difficulty would all disappear and the lighthouse that was right in front of his eyes would go further away into the distance again.
The baby dragons of the next iteration would not be able to remember him.
Even though he would be forgotten, that was not the issue. It was just that he wouldn’t be able to forget the kids, so if they were to curse him during their last moments, those memories would have to stay inside him for the rest of his life.
Forever.
.
.
.
It was when he led his exhausted body to return to reality.
Was there someone wretched and hateful enough to laugh while watching his misfortune? If there was, that guy must be nearby laughing yet again.
That must be the case. Otherwise, there was no way something this dreadful could be happening to him.
– My sincerest apologies, my lord.
Somewhere outside the outer dimensions.
Clone 1 was stepping on a headless body.
– I have lost track of Yu Bom.
***
“…”
Myu told her a mouthful.
And Bom couldn’t understand them.
She was standing still on the spot, so Myu asked a question.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“You, who are you…? What are you sayi…”
“Is it hard to believe? Well, it probably is. Since you are kneeling on the ground in a corner, acting modest and wagging your tail in front of dog food, it might sound very strange to you.”
“What are you trying to say!”
“I’m also quite curious. I wonder what happened to you guys.”
Myu had used one word to shake Bom’s mind.
And with one mouthful of words, Myu was driving Bom’s life into the abyss.
“Come here. Come lay your forehead above mine, and receive my memories. Then you’ll be able to tell whether my words are true or not.”
Bom knew that a black dragon’s ability alongside [Memory Manipulation] was [Memory Transmission]. Unlike other dragon entities that could only receive memories from nearby dragons, black dragons could one-sidedly give memories.
When Myu started walking towards her in large strides, Bom took a few steps back in surprise.
“Don’t come here.”
“Stop running away and come here. We do not have much time, so hurry.”
“Don’t come. I warned you.”
“I’m not interested in wasting time. Come before I force you to.”
Despite her warning, Myu closed in.
In one stride, when she was one arm’s length away from her,
With a flinch, Bom raised the tip of the ballista and aimed it at Myu.
“Don’t come hereeee–!!”
There was a time when she thought living in ignorance was happiness. But after seeing Yu Jitae who continued walking towards a quagmire by himself, Bom realised that turning away and putting a blanket over the truth was not the right solution.
“Do you want to shoot? Go ahead. It doesn’t matter. I was born to die anyway so it doesn’t matter who kills me.”
However,
Even though she wanted to know about him,
These weren’t the things she wanted to know.
“But, you still need to wake up from your dream.”
Bom was not confident in facing the truth. If she were to receive Myu’s memories here, Bom might have to face a truth that might have been better left unknown forever.
That supposition was frightening enough to suffocate her.
“Face the truth.”
At that moment,
Black aura gathered all around Myu’s body and transformed into thorned tentacles. Filling the isolation room, they raced towards Bom while some of the tentacles blocked the doors of the room.
One of the thorned tentacles gripped Bom by the neck and started pulling her while threatening to snap her thin neck.
“Ugh! L, let…go! T, this…!”
Her neck was being strangled and her body was being dragged, but Bom was still directly glaring at Myu’s face because that was her target.
And when Myu’s face was right in front of her eyes.
–
–Bom pulled the trigger.
.
.
.
The world contorted and the dimensions were shaken. Blocking her mouth, Bom collapsed on the ground.
Something was surging up her throat. It suffocated her heart the more she tried to suppress it and struck her neck. Later when the pressure was too much to withstand, Bom couldn’t help but let it out of her mouth.
“Uhp…”
She threw up what was inside.
It was her first time vomiting after being born as a dragon.
There were wounds all around her body. She was bleeding from her neck and her cheeks, but she wasn’t in the right mind to stop the blood. Beads of blood were dropping from her chin.
Unbelievable memories were flooding into her mind, and unacceptable things were jolting her brain. The gleaming sharp blade; infuriated eyes; restricting hands; the yelling voice and the hands slapping her cheeks were all engraved into her mind. It went on endlessly for longer than she could imagine and was even longer than her entire life.
After vomiting several times, Bom noticed blood travelling down her cheeks. Her tears were as red as blood.
“Uhp. Uuugk…”
She threw up again, without even knowing what was coming outside.
What was in her mind, and where her thoughts were headed were all beyond what Bom could perceive. Only the distant and painful memories were laying her mind to waste.
Watching herself suffering from pain was hard. Seeing herself scream from her guts from crushed bones was horrendous but what was more painful to see…
…Was what had happened to her precious sisters.
Things that were beyond believable,
That shocking truth was shattering Bom’s heart to pieces.
A tremendous sense of betrayal was filling her heart. They took place like a heavy piece of lead and crushed her heart which was like a glass marble.
An emotion that her unforgetting memories wouldn’t forget, that would thus be remembered forever…
“Uuhp— Uhkk–!”
Bom threw up again, but the sense of betrayal was so heavy it did not leave her heart. It was only the dark poison-like blood and saliva that was flowing out of her mouth.
Unable to stand up, Bom crawled.
By the time she came to herself, she was crawling on all fours.
A message arrived on her watch. It was from the witch that read something like, I’m gonna die, I’m running away. Since there was not enough time, Bom straightened her mind while crawling on all fours.
Light-headedly, she cleaned her mouth and wiped her tears.
When she next came to herself,
She was stumbling with a limp.
She had no idea what she was seeing, what time it was and where she was headed. Bom could only stagger forward.
There was a place she definitely had to go to. Things that were too heavy to keep to herself were hanging in her emotions.
While stumbling forward, her hair scraped past her eyes. Jumping over the dimensions, she started walking down a familiar corridor as an even more familiar door appeared in her sight.
[301]
She raised her trembling hand,
And shivering fingers.
She noticed that her scratched fingers were still bleeding. After pausing for a bit, she healed her body and then opened the door.
On the shoe racks she could see the girls’ shoes.
Stumbling in, she saw the kids sitting down in the living room. Her hazy eyes had trouble seeing the kids properly so she walked a bit closer.
The kids were all gathered in one place, but the atmosphere wasn’t a positive one. It was hard to tell why that was the case so she went a little closer.
Yeorum and Kaeul were worriedly looking at Gyeoul who was sitting in between them. Gyeoul was bleeding from her fingers and next to Yeorum was a spiked glove which she used as training equipment.
“That’s why I told you not to touch it!” Yeorum was shouting.
“…”
“This is yellow but it’s not gold. How many times do I have to say it? It’s dangerous so why are you touching it huh? Why!”
“Unni. Stop screaming at Gyeoul…! She already said it was a mistake…!”
“…Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay Gyeoul! It’s okay to make mistakes. And it’s not that serious so it should stop bleeding soon…”
Gyeoul was close to tears with her finger in hand. She seemed to have gotten hurt while touching Yeorum’s belongings.
“…”
Soon, Bom took a step closer to the corridor. Seeing her, the kids greeted while Kaeul asked her to heal Gyeoul’s wound.
It was a tiny wound; a small scratch on her fingertip. From just that, Gyeoul was about sorrowfully weep; Yeorum was angry that the child was hurting herself for no reason; and Kaeul was voicing her concerns.
“…”
Unlike someone else, Bom couldn’t send emotions. However, it was possible for the kids to view them.
Gyeoul walked up to her.
She then reached her fingers out to Bom. ‘…It hurts.’ She whined, telling her that the bleeding wound was painful.
Bom kneeled and carefully held her hands. Using her unstable mana, she used healing magic to caress over the wound. With a whimper, Gyeoul buried her head into Bom’s chest and asked for a hug.
When her small arms began to wrap around her body… Those arms felt so heavy that they made it hard for Bom to breathe. The hazy world in her sight became even blurrier.
How painful must it have been?
Because of that devil…
“Guys. I have something to say.”