It was quite a ridiculous feat.
Lee Sungmin didn’t know exactly how much time had passed, but it was certain it had been quite some time since his mind had been completely reset to a fresh state.
Even until the last moment of stabbing himself with the white awl, Lee Sungmin did not quite exactly know what was going to happen. But the results were clear now.
It was a way of completely destroying his mind; equivalent to suicide. Because of that, Lee Sungmin was able to kill the Predator of Massacre which was a beast of legend that had been lurking within the deepest and darkest depths of his subconscious.
It was only possible because of the various conditions that matched the situation. Originally, at the moment when Lee Sungmin completely had turned into a monster, his ego should have been completely erased from existence and the Predator of Massacre would take the place of his vacant spot.
However, Lee Sungmin’s ego did not disappear. He remained in his mental world as a dormant ego and for some reason, a physical weapon that he had picked up from killing An Zun, had materialized in that world.
In addition, Heoju intervened and gave Lee Sungmin enough time to stab himself with the white awl by holding the Predator of Massacre off.
A ridiculous combination of conditions and coincidences had led to such a result.‘No.’
Lee Sungmin could no longer believe in the word ‘coincidence’. How many times had he used that term, thinking that fate was working its ways.
‘I don’t even know what happened.’
There were many questions he had. How long had it been since his mental world and ego had gone into a dormant state? What happened to his body? In fact, that was the biggest question and concern for Lee Sungmin at that moment.
What had even happened to his body while he was asleep?
When Lee Sungmin’s ego had first fallen into a slumber back in the City of Endless Night, his body had run completely wild for that brief time.
He was completely insane at that time when his ego had been asleep and now that Lee Sungmin thought about it, that also seemed to be the Predator of Massacre who had likely taken over his body at that time.
When Lee Sungmin had fought against the monstrous entity that resembled himself, within his mental world and subdued it, there was a man that Heoju had met and seemed to know about everything that was happening. That was most likely the Predator of Massacre.
At that time, Lee Sungmin had likely only been able to overpower that entity because it was not the complete ego that the Predator of Massacre embodied since the Final Catastrophes of the Apocalypse had not occurred.
The Apocalypse’s fate had been set in stone the moment Lee Sungmin regressed, but the Catastrophes had started after Lee Sungmin had returned to the dungeon where he had died in his previous life.
‘If my ego is still here, that means my body isn’t dead.
There was no way that he was in the afterlife right now because the surroundings were too familiar, but if he was alive, then what the hell had happened? What on earth was his body doing while he was asleep at that time?”
“Don’t you know anything?”Lee Sungmin asked Heoju.
“I don’t know. This old man tried to take control of your body while you were gone, just in case…… But it just didn’t work.”
Heoju grumbled.
“But there’s no doubt that it’s not dead.”
“How long has it been since then?”
Lee Sungmin could hardly estimate the time that passed. But it certainly didn’t end in a few days.
It had taken at least a few months back when Lee Sungmin resurfaced from his mental world into the physical one when he had undergone Denir’s Trial of Time.
“I don’t know, but…… Hmm. I think it’s been a few years at the very least.”
“…… a few…… years……?”
“That’s the least I can assume.”
‘Wow.’Lee Sungmin laughed in vain. At the same time, it was frightening. He had a lot of anxiety and concern about what his body had done after losing control of it for the years he had been asleep.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump…….
‘What the hell is that annoying noise?’
Lee Sungmin expanded his consciousness by focusing on the irritating knocking noise that would not stop bothering him even after he woke up.
Whoosh!
Lee Sungmin’s control of his ego and mental world had substantially increased. Lee Sungmin’s mental world was finally completely within his control as he was no longer fighting for control over it with any other beings.
* * *
The closed eyes opened slowly.
Lee Sungmin’s view was no longer the large white space that made up his mental world.
He was in the dark, and completely blind. He couldn’t see very well. It was not because he was in the dark, but because his unkempt bangs were so long that they covered his eyes.
He tried to move, but a clang of iron rang in his ear as soon as he tried to move a muscle. His naked body was covered and wrapped tightly with a white chain.
“What’s this?”
Lee Sungmin muttered because he was completely dumbfounded at the sight. It wasn’t just the chain. Amulets with unknown glyphs were attached to the chains and his body had the same glyphs painted in red all over himself.
He tried to force himself to move his body.
There was a strong sense of resistance but it wasn’t too difficult to physically remove the chains.
Lee Sungmin stood still and examined the state of his own body for a while.
It had easily been a few years since he had been awake. Luckily, it seemed his body’s condition wasn’t in such a terrible state like he thought it might be. Rather, he felt that it was much better than before. He didn’t know why at first, but Lee Sungmin felt absolute control over his ego and the powers that had originally troubled him in the past like the fear-based mana inside of his dantian.
‘The seal is completely gone.’
It didn’t mean anything bad. The seal engraved in his mental world by Oslo was completely destroyed, and Lee Sungmin’s body had completely turned into a monster’s. However, luckily instead of the Predator of Massacre taking over his body…. It was him now in control.
In other words, Lee Sungmin was completely a monster now, but his mind remained as a human being’s.
That was why Lee Sungmin finally felt completely free. His body in the past was in between a human’s and a monster’s and his ego was also becoming infected by the Predator of Massacre slowly in the process. Now, although his body was a monster’s, he didn’t ever have to worry about his ego transforming again and losing his reason.
There was no burden on his mind either as Lee Sungmin tried to rouse the internal energy within his dantian that he had absorbed from the City of Endless Night.
[This is actually good for you.]
Heoju murmured in Lee Sungmin’s head. It was just as Heoju said. The spell of reversion had ended up benefitting Lee Sungmin in the end.
‘But my body still hasn’t completely digested the power within my Black Heart.’
That would be too greedy to expect his body to have completely absorbed all the powers laying dormant inside of his Black Heart. Lee Sungmin wanted to do that on his own with his own power anyways.
Also because of that, it meant that Lee Sungmin still had much more power he could gain by completing the metamorphosis of his body and absorbing the inheritance left behind by his master.
[Looking at your body, I can roughly see what happened. Someone must have sealed you, who was up and running around as a wild monster.]
“Who could it be?”
[This is magic, but it’s also not magic at the same time. Maybe it was the Saint who was acting with you at that time…… It’s strange. It would have been almost impossible to overpower and seal you with her power though?]
‘Did Abel help?’
No, that couldn’t be the case. Lee Sungmin felt bitter as he recalled what had happened. Abel is… dead. Didn’t the Predator of Massacre say it as well?
Abel gathered his last of his life force and expelled Kim Jonghyun from the confines of time and space within Eria.
“….Abel.”
Lee Sungmin called his name in a low voice. He served the world better than he looked out for himself until the very end, and succeeded in completely expelling Kim Jonghyun, one of the Final Catastrophes of the Apocalypse, at the expense of his own life.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The annoying sounds would not stop getting louder. Lee Sungmin slowly swallowed his breath and started to circulate his internal energy.
Cra-crackle~
Inside Lee Sungmin’s body, the sound of a thunderbolt rang out within his internal circuitry. The internal energy within his dantian quickly started to circulate with his other powers and his dantian roared to life.
There was no rejection or conflict with the powers inside of his body. It was now completely his own power and nobody else’s.
Shaaaaaaaaa…
A purple current of electric internal energy sprang up from around Lee Sungmin’s body. It instantly burned the last few bits of chains that were still on his body and the talismans in a single go.
[That’s the primary seal. The totality of this seal is this space itself. You can’t easily break through…… Of course that’s only if…]
Lee Sungmin looked around the space he was in and realized he was in a pitch-black confine of space.
Lee Sungmin knew what this was for. In case Lee Sungmin somehow broke the first seal in his unconscious state, he couldn’t see even an inch in front of himself.
Looking closely, there was a thin crack of light seeping out ever so slightly, and every time that annoying noise came knocking, that small crack spread out just a little bit further each time.
[Someone must be trying to get you out of here.]
That sound was the sound of the seal on the space he was in, breaking apart slowly.
Lee Sungmin slowly approached the crack that had now turned into a small hole. Even at that moment, the thumping noise was not stopping.
“It’s too slow.”
Lee Sungmin raised his hand.
All of a sudden, Lee Sungmin realized something was a bit weird. He didn’t have his spear in his hands. Lee Sungmin was embarrassed as he had taken a stance to strike with a spear that was not even there, but as one said : if you need to chew and don’t have teeth, just use your gums.
Crrrrrrrunggggg!
An electric current colored in a deep violet wound around Lee Sungmin’s hands. The current created the several energies within his body came into contact with the hole.
BA-BAM!
The crack grew bigger with a huge explosion from the contact. Lee Sungmin ripped the crack apart with his hands wrapped in the electric current like he was trying to force an elevator open.
Soon the hole was extended enough to the size where he could walk out of comfortably.
Crack!
Lee Sungmin’s body was wrapped in a purple current. He ripped apart the space and and black afterglow erupted from the tendrils of purple lightning around his body as he used the Dark Storm Arts around his body.
* * *
‘PLEASE STOP IT!”
Tang Ah-Hui was crying. Dozens of orthodox warriors who were captured as escort warriors for the group had already lost their souls and died.
They weren’t dead in body, but in spirit as their souls just escaped from their bodies and they dropped to the floor lifelessly like dominoes.
There was no particular order in which died. At least in the eyes of Tang Ah-Hui, the Dark Wizards did not discriminate on who they were offering first. Every time the Dark Wizards in front of them had black light erupt from their fingertips, one of the prisoners dropped lifelessly to the ground.
It made Tang Ah-Hui even more frightened. It would at least give her a chance to figure out how much time she had left if she knew the order in which they were dying, but there was no rhyme or reason so she couldn’t help but be terrified that she could be next.
“At least…. At least let us write a short will for our families..….”
Tang Ah-Hui couldn’t even properly give strength to her voice.
Next to her, Zhuge Aryong, who was constantly thinking about what the Wizards meant by ‘seal’ and ‘sacrifice’, had no visible worries about his impending death. Hwang Myeong-un was trying to get out of the trap somehow but his results were futile. There was Murong Chae, who was trying to solve the problem secretly. The rest of the prisoners were just shaking in fear, waiting silently.
“Oh.”
The Dark Wizard who was in front of the rest, exclaimed slightly as he noticed something.
As if they were not interested, the werewolves of the Lycanthrope Tribe, who were sitting together and drinking in a distant place, turned their heads slightly but later ignored it.
Vampires, who were watching the Wizards perform their magic, widened their eyes in surprise.
Coming out of the crack in space that seemingly appeared out of thin air, Lee Sungmin slowly descended, drawing everyone’s attention.
As he landed nimbly on his feet, Lee Sungmin looked around slowly.
It had been 10 years.
Lee Sungmin did not recognize Murong Chae, who had become a young man by this time. But he did at least recognize Tang Ah-Hui; probably because her facial features hadn’t changed much despite aging.
“Tang Ah-Hui? Why is she here?”
Who were the people next to her as well? Lee Sungmin looked around at the helpless bodies and frightened Orthodox warriors and turned his head to see the werewolves drinking as if they were having a party.
Lee Sungmin still couldn’t tell too well that they were werewolves because they hadn’t transformed yet, but he could still sense their subtle gazes on him were full of interest. It wasn;t just them however, who showed blatant interest.
“Vampires?”
Lee Sungmin knew all too well about the appearance of Vampires.
Lee Sungmin looked at his body first. He didn’t have his spear on him, but he did have all of his internal energy intact. There were still several bodies laying around, and most of all, Lee Sungmin could smell the foul stench of death that was still embedded in the land of Germane.
Lee Sungmin first decided to try and improve his vision because he was not familiar with his long bangs as he had never grown out his hair that long.
Lee Sungmin pushed his bangs to the side. His hair was already down to his waist in terms of length and he would surely need to have it cut. Lee Sungmin let out a sigh as he thought to himself.
‘How long has it been?’
He didn’t feel very hungry. Other than his bothersome hair, Lee Sungmin’s fingernails were rather long as well. His teeth were also rather sharp as he gnashed his teeth slightly to get a feel for them.
“……can you tell me what’s going on?”
It wasn’t a question intended for anyone. It would have been all right if anyone could answer. However, no one answered Lee Sungmin. Lee Sungmin sighed and looked at Tang Ah-Hui.
“Long time no see.”
“Who…… Who…… Who are you?
“You don’t recognize me? We’ve met a few times. I’m Lee Sungmin. You called me the Ghost Spear.”
“Ghost Spear!”
Zhuge Aryong shouted at Lee Sungmin’s words as if he finally understood it all.
It had to be Lee Sungmin. The Ghost Spear who went insane 10 years ago! Zhuge Aryong understood finally that it had to have been the Ghost Spear who was sealed here in this land.
“Can… you…… How can you be here……?”
“That’s what I want to know. Where are we?”
“Germane.”
It was Lao Shen who answered. He walked a few steps forward toward Lee Sungmin.
“You didn’t forget what happened here, did you?”
“……Germane…… There’s no way I’d forget. By the way, who are you? No…. more than that…..”
Lee Sungmin’s forehead wrinkled as he struggled to remember the long battle that had put him in his current state.
“The last thing I remember was Kim Jonghyun carrying out a complete massacre in Germane. How long has it been since then?”Lee Sungmin still needed the exact number of years he had been sealed for.
“Ten years.”
Lao Shen replied.
Lee Sungmin stayed silent at the words.