Chapter 477: Finale (2)
Separating the current Yura from Heavenly Evil is like trying to separate two colors of clay, as I mentioned before.
Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible… but now that fate has been activated, it’s possible.
Fate grants the ability to rewrite any destiny of the target, but only once.
“Don’t,” Yura slapped my hand away roughly.
“Stop,” she hissed.
“It’s too late.”
“No, it’s not too late yet.”
Yura glared at me with the same fierce expression she always had, as if she had never cried before.
“Deactivate that power. Then kill me. If you do that, at least you…”
“Do you really say that even though you know what I’m going to say?”
“What meaning is there in surviving like that?!”
“There is meaning.”
I gently pressed a finger into Yura’s abdomen.
“If you die, the child inside you will die too.”
Her face changed.
“…That… means!”
“Not just one. I didn’t expect it, but it’s twins.”
I could now be certain.
It had been half a year since this new life had begun, and it was still a mystery why the children inside hadn’t grown properly.
That it wasn’t one child in Yura’s womb, but two.
All those days of worrying over what to name them now felt pointless…
But so what? As long as they come out healthy, that’s all that matters.
Our ability to speak like this must be largely because of these children.
…….
So as their parents, we should help them fly properly into the world.
Well, by that time I won’t be there.
Still, I believe that even without their father, these children will grow well.
But—
“I refuse…”
Even after saying that, she shook her head desperately.
…….
“Still, you’re more important. You’re more precious.”
“…Yura.”
“I know that saying this makes me unworthy as a mother. Still…!”
Her face contorted as she choked up, as though she wasn’t sure whether to be angry or sad.
“I hate this more than anything, that you’re leaving.”
A woman of iron blood, born with an extraordinary destiny and raised to be a lord.
Having been strictly forbidden to express personal feelings, this might be the first and last time I see her spill all emotions like this.
Of course I don’t want to leave.
But even so—
‘I have to do what needs doing.’
Even if it leaves scars on her that can never be erased.
From the beginning until now, my goal in life has remained unchanged.
‘They probably wanted a happy ending, but that ship has sailed. Still, I can at least finish this properly.’
I closed my eyes lightly.
Activating Jiseongsin, the merged Simgiche began once more to knock on the door to the Divine Realm.
“Jinyeomyeong! No!!!”
Yura sensed what I was trying to do and screamed as if mad.
True Martiality.
“Bright Net Virtuous Flow.”
To ensure this was truly finished, I activated True Martiality again.
When I reached the Divine Realm again to fully unleash Bright Net Virtuous Flow,
someone blocked the path toward the pillar of light.
—You finally went and did it, huh.
A figure wearing a pure white mask, six arms sprouting from it.
The root of all this chaos—Heavenly Evil.
“You did the same thing I did.”
Having already taken a direct hit from the True Star Sword, wounded in the Heart’s Path Transcending Resentment, and trapped by the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword, how could he possibly return here?
Only if he too had made a similar resolution.
Crack!
In an instant, his mask shattered.
On the right side from my perspective, the missing part was not Yura’s face, but a pure white void.
—Yes, I risked everything just as you did.
Crunch! Creak!
His divine form began to grow, becoming massive.
Shedding all traces of Yura’s form, he started transforming into a gigantic being, riding on clouds like those I’d seen in Heaven of Sacred Spirits.
“He’s disgustingly big.”
I craned my neck so far it hurt before I could grasp the scale of it.
That thing, grown so massive it could use the entire continent as a foothold, cast its blood-red eyes upon me from beyond the heavens.
“Won’t you just return to the cycle of reincarnation and wait for another chance?”
—Don’t spout nonsense.
Having reverted to its original form as Heavenly Evil of Origin, it sent forth killing intent toward me.
—You intend to use that power to rewrite fate and completely annihilate my existence, don’t you?
Tch.
“…You caught on?”
I curled my lips into a smile.
Just as it said, in the coming reign of Yura, there was no place for something like Heavenly Evil.
“You and the Heaven-Defying Society have done enough. It’s about time you all disappeared.”
—I will not vanish!
Boom!
Heavenly Evil’s massive foot came crashing down on me.
Its sole was the size of an entire province, but here, physical force held little meaning.
“You really don’t make conversations easy.”
I folded space and leapt up to where Heavenly Evil’s face was located.
A face carved seemingly from light and shadow alone, reminiscent of Avalokiteśvara I had seen at Yoo Family's Sacred Mountain, entered my view in an instant.
The only difference was, unlike before, its eyes had turned a pitch-dark red.
—It won’t be like before.
As if it had been waiting for me, its red eyes mixed with white light and began to glow.
—True Word: Extinguishing Karma
The Mantra of Extinguishing Karma, meant to erase all karmic deeds of past lives, came flying toward me in an attempt to obliterate me.
—Do you really think you can block this with that incomplete technique?
It was true.
With Bright Net Virtuous Flow not yet fully mastered, I couldn’t completely cancel out an attack from the fully awakened Heavenly Evil.
However—
“Bright Net Virtuous Flow wasn’t activated to fight you.”
—…What?
“It’s to separate you and Yura completely.”
As I activated Bright Net Virtuous Flow with my left hand, I extended my right toward him.
“If I wasn’t concerned about the aftermath, wouldn’t I have just used True Martiality again?”
—Nonsense! The Divine Realm is the answer one reaches after a lifetime of searching. The concept of presenting two answers at once doesn’t exist!
“Normally, yes. But… haven’t you forgotten something important?”
I withdrew the hand I had extended toward him and covered my face with it.
“That I, too, possess Heavenly Evil’s power.”
—……!!
Crackle crackle!
Compared to him, mine was pathetically thin, but a pitch-black mask slowly enveloped my face.
The previous persona of the main consciousness of Heavenly Evil, Grand Heavenly Lord Han Seon.
The burden of Heavenly Evil passed to me by the first Grand Heavenly Lord, Han Yeong, the last Priestess of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect.
“You raged around to erase all traces of the Senior Brother, but another part of you clearly still couldn’t let go of him.”
—You curssseeed wretcccchhhh!!
This truly was the final moment.
Even with Fate activated, if I squandered my strength like this, my end would arrive sooner than expected.
Before that happens, I’ll end him completely.
I invoked the name of the mantra Han Yeong had left in her final moment, altering it in my own way.
“True Martiality, Extinguishing Fixed Karma.”
Extinguishing Fixed Karma.
Unlike the Mantra of Extinguishing Karma, which eradicates karmic deeds from countless past lives, this was another authority of Heavenly Evil, aimed at extinguishing predetermined evil karma.
No, more precisely, it was the authority of the “other Heavenly Evil.”
—This… this is…
Heavenly Evil’s entire form began to harden as he recognized the power of True Martiality: Extinguishing Fixed Karma.
“It makes sense. That Mantra of Extinguishing Karma was a natural enemy of me, the reincarnated one… but this technique is your natural enemy, the one who has accumulated evil karma from behind the scenes of the world for thousands upon tens of thousands of years.”
I hadn’t used this True Martiality to cancel out his mantra.
Instead, I had accepted mutual destruction and, giving up defense, used it to thoroughly target his true form.
—No, no! Noooooooo!!
Extinguishing Fixed Karma was a type of suicide technique.
A technique that no sane being would ever create—one that killed its own user.
I had no idea why Han Yeong, the Priestess who had awakened as the Grand Heavenly Lord, created such a technique.
But that her heart had made this moment possible was undeniable.
—Aaaaaaaarrrgggghhhh!!
I could see it.
As the Mantra of Extinguishing Karma obliterated me,
the Extinguishing Fixed Karma I unleashed was erasing the existence known as Heavenly Evil.
And beyond that, I saw another sight.
Inside the space of Bright Net Connection, the pure white power of Heavenly Evil that had clung to Yura’s entire body began to crumble and fall away like dead skin.
At this rate, Yura would be able to fully reclaim herself and remain in the world.
—I can’t let it end like this! Not like this!
“No, this is where it ends.”
Rumble!
Heavenly Evil and I began to be expelled from the Divine Realm.
Since the Divine Realm was never meant to be a battlefield, it seemed to have a built-in structure that immediately expelled anyone who tried to exploit it like this.
I instinctively realized that once expelled from here, I would never be able to step into the Divine Realm again.
So what? Limitations or not, all I cared about was saving Yura.
‘Was that really… my last… moment without regrets?’
I closed my eyes, gazing at the distant, collapsing true form of Heavenly Evil.
Alongside Heavenly Evil, my entire body was shattering like glass.
I clenched my teeth amid regret and lingering attachments.
‘I still had so much I wanted to do…’
Not being able to name the second child before going—of all things, that regret was the hardest to bear.
If I’d known, I would’ve thought of names in advance.
“Regretting it that much?”
“…Yes, I regret it like hell…”
Huh?
I stopped mid-sentence, responding absentmindedly to a voice that came from right beside me.
This place was a kind of passage between the mortal realm and the Divine Realm.
Even I couldn’t endure here without activating Jiseongsin.
And yet, what appeared near me in such a place wasn’t just one figure.
“…Senior Brothers?”
I could barely recognize their forms, which lacked facial features, but I was certain.
The seven Senior Brothers, including the eldest, Yoo Jeon.
And, someone who hadn’t been there before—
“Ma Seoyeon?”
“……”
A woman’s form, faintly glowing red, stood next to Yoo Jeon.
It was definitely the same Ma Seoyeon I had last seen when I retrieved the Cheonrok Sword.
“Were you planning to just die like this? Our master hoped for a happy ending for you all.”
Hearing those words, the finality of it all hit me, and I discarded formalities as I snapped back.
“Then what was I supposed to do? If I hadn’t done this, I couldn’t have saved Yura.”
“……”
“…Hmph.”
Pouting and grumbling, the figure who seemed to be Hwan Seong clicked his tongue.
“Our youngest… was always this rude, huh?”
“Well, I didn’t exactly grow up in a setting that fostered manners. And really, do I need to be polite at the very end?”
I’d done everything I could.
Now all that was left was to go.
Watching me, Yoo Jeon asked me this.
“Do you really think this is the end?”
“…?”
“It’s not over yet.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Thanks to your efforts, Heavenly Evil was mostly annihilated, but he still has one last chance left.”
“…One last chance?”
“Look.”
Hwan Seong reached out and showed me something.
The place he revealed appeared to be the ruins of what used to be Mount Tai.
Among the wreckage lay Yura, collapsed as if unconscious, and nearby, a strange substance—white, red, and black fluids intermingled—twitched as if alive.
I instinctively knew that fluid was Heavenly Evil’s final remnant.
Squirm. Squirm.
The fluid that had left Yura’s body suddenly darted away, moving quickly toward somewhere.
Had it moved about ten li?
A shard of Heavenly Evil enveloped someone lingering nearby!
‘Wait, that bastard?!’
It was shocking enough for a lone human to appear in such a battlefield.
But what was even more shocking—was the identity of that person.
‘Han Mubaek! Why is he there?!’
Han Mubaek, who had been Yura’s husband in her previous life.
The one who had gone missing at Sipmandae Mountain, whose whereabouts had become unknown, had suddenly appeared at Mount Tai and was attempting to fuse with Heavenly Evil’s final fragment!
“What do you say? At this rate, all your hard work will have been in vain.”
“N-no, what the…”
The back of my head wasn’t just numb—it burned.
Originally, Han Mubaek was the joint successor meant to inherit all from the Ten Celestial Army.
And according to him, he was fated to become the host of the Grand Heavenly Lord.
In other words, his compatibility with Heavenly Evil wasn’t bad at all!
‘If this continues, all my efforts will be for nothing!’
Yoo Jeon seemed to sense my turmoil and chuckled, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“So? Do you still think it’s all over?”
“……”
“It’s not over yet. So then…”
Before I knew it, the Senior Brothers had formed a close circle around me.
“To end that thing completely, you’ll have to keep on living, right?”