Chapter 187

“Grandfather.”

A small child living in the wilderness sat atop an ox, gazing up at the night sky.

“Grandfather. It’s sparkling again today.”

Flap!

The grandfather hurriedly threw back the tent flap and rushed outside. In the night sky shone a star unlike any he’d seen before. Brighter than any other star, the world would occasionally flash and flicker like lightning.

The grandfather frantically grabbed his grandson’s shoulder.

“Oh my, you fool! How could you only mention this now! Quickly, get inside the tent!”

After pushing the child into the tent, grandfather bellowed at the top of his lungs to wake the nomad people.

“Oh no! Chief! Please wake up quickly! Everyone wake up! It’s an ill omen! Another ill omen has appeared today!”

The nomad people jolted awake. Even those who had been deeply asleep shot up the moment the word ‘ill omen’ reached their ears.

“I’ll raise the barrier’s output, so the rest of you gather the livestock and cover their eyes! Prepare the earplugs! And use at least 10 Light worth of coins to strengthen the protective talismans!”

“Yes!”

Everyone remembered the last ill omen. The night sky that had flashed and flickered as if stars were falling and new ones being born. And at the end of it all, what they had heard was a scream steeped in terrible despair. They didn’t know who it was. But somehow… they could instinctively tell that the being who had screamed so wretchedly was one who held goodwill toward humanity. Was that why? Since that day, people had wandered through depression and despair. The nomad chief, a 1st Circle mage, diagnosed it as some kind of mental magic brought on by the ill omen.

Everyone trembled as they prepared against the ill omen. If they were exposed defenseless to such screams again, it seemed they would no longer be able to harbor hope for life.

‘I still want to live.’

‘I don’t want to be broken like this…’

It was a struggle to not lose hope.

Rumble—rumble—

The massive rock wrapped with sacred rope. The mobile barrier trembled as it raised its output. People pressed protective talismans made of peach branches upright against their chests and closed their eyes. As if praying. That their hearts wouldn’t be broken by this ill omen.

But then, the small child who had first spotted the ill omen cried out. While tapping his grandfather’s thigh as he crouched with eyes closed, making his grandfather open his eyes.

“Grandfather, look! Look! It’s truly beautiful!”

At first, the grandfather looked down sternly at his grandson. Who did this boy take after to be like this… Even during the last ill omen, he hadn’t shown much fear, and now he was fearless again. He knew it was a good quality for a mage, but he was always worried that the boy would act recklessly and die young like his parents.

“You fool! Quickly close your eyes and…! Huh?”

Grandfather, who had been scolding him, suddenly looked up at the night sky in surprise.

“Ch-Chief…”

Grandfather’s voice trembled, and the nomad chief’s voice trembled in reply.

“Heh… hehe. This one doesn’t seem to be an ill omen, but rather the opposite.”

The flashing had stopped at some point, and just one star bloomed like a flower in the night sky, shining beautifully in red, blue, and yellow.

Rumble—rumble—

Ring—ring—

Swirl.

The night sky sang. A beautiful sound they’d never heard before drifted over from that distant, newly born flower-like star.

Completely opposite to the previous screams, their hearts grew peaceful and hope suddenly welled up from somewhere.

The star born that day never disappeared.

Sometimes like fire, sometimes like water, it shone in various colors while always keeping watch over that place.

“Who on earth could that person be?”

To someone’s murmured question, the smallest child in the group answered cheerfully. The child who hadn’t been frightened by the previous ill omen. The same small child who had gazed up at the sky until the very end.

“Of course it must be the Divine Mage. Even when all the world’s waters flowed backward, didn’t he protect us?”

A remote wilderness that didn’t even know the name of the Magic Emperor. But even they knew the name of the Divine Mage. Somehow, though they had completely forgotten the spell <Designer Cheonmun> that he had taught them, the name Divine Mage alone remained vividly in their memory.

“Divine Mage…”

“Divine Mage.”

People began repeating his name one by one. In a world where the Magic Emperor had disappeared, hope even greater than before was being born.

* * *

[My god…]

When the fifth apostle called out to the Outer God like a death rattle,

Crack!

Its body split open, revealing a dimensional rift.

Light rippling beyond the rift.

Those were definitely eyes. The Outer God gazed at me with light that undulated like the ocean.

A feeling as if time had frozen.

Terror as if my soul had frozen.

Even knowing that it couldn’t emerge from there… I was afraid, so afraid. 8th Circle? Such a thing was nothing but child’s play before this Outer God. Such a being stared at me with pure killing intent.

That’s when I realized.

Things would become more intense from now on. That Outer God bastard… it’s planning to destroy humanity with this opportunity.

‘There’ll be no rest.’

Though we had achieved great victory by killing the fifth apostle, only more dangerous and fierce war lay ahead of us.

We’d be busy. And I would need to become much stronger than I am now.

Suddenly rage boiled up.

Annoyance that overcame even fear split my lips and shot toward that bastard’s eyes.

“What the hell. Get lost. You can’t even come outside.”

Ptooey.

As expected.

Even though I insulted it like that, the Outer God couldn’t do anything.

It was because it had used too much power capturing the Magic Emperor. It probably just wanted to get a look at me once.

Swirl—

The split dimension healed and its gaze disappeared. The spit I’d expelled crossed the empty cosmos.

…Bastard. Guess it didn’t want to get hit by spit.

Though what I call spit would just be pure water and fire and wind in my current state harmonized with nature… well, it’s a matter of attitude.

With the Outer God gone and the fifth apostle beginning to collapse, I slowly extracted my body from within. Though we’d won the battle, the cleanup wouldn’t be easy.

“Aether Off.”

First, I closed the aether dimension.

Bang!

Dizzying.

It was like racing at thousands of kilometers per hour and then crashing straight into an iron wall.

Ugh…

My consciousness, which had been racing madly, was instantly extinguished, leaving terrible motion sickness.

-Focus yourself! Wake up!

Gyeolli’s voice was even more tense than during the fight. I grabbed hold of my consciousness that swayed like a candle in the wind and began gathering my body that had scattered into water, fire, and wind.

Ari and Inggolli busily collected my body. I seized the fire and wind that tried to scatter at will with my own will. But the barely gathered fire and wind only swirled chaotically without easily taking human form.

-Hurry! Return to your original state! You have to do it quickly!

-Holding on isn’t easy, you know.

Ari and Inggolli urged me, but progress came slowly.

Sigh…

It wasn’t a matter of difficulty. This was… a matter of motivation. Did I really need to gather myself again? Was there any need to return to being the human Baek Jun-woo? These were fundamental doubts. Scattering my form and merging with spirits meant exactly that. By becoming greater, my previous self-awareness seemed insignificant. I couldn’t find a reason to return to my original self.

That’s when Gyeolli stepped forward.

Pop-pop-pop—countless faces appeared among the bubbling water droplets.

My dad Baek Ho-ryang. My mom Baek Song-i. Sister Yuria. That bastard Monggu. Teacher Sena…

Ah, ah, I get it. Stop it. Geez. You won’t even let me whine for a moment.

Swirl.

First arms and legs formed, then a head sprouted, and fingernails and hair grew. Ari and Inggolli separated from my body, and the Philosopher’s Stone resumed human cellular form.

-Congratulations on returning. Home feels good, doesn’t it?

Gyeolli’s voice flowed like a trickle through my blood.

Yes. It’s nice.

My heart beating too.

I watched the fifth apostle’s final moments in a daze.

The Outer God’s order was expelled and our universe’s order filled that space completely.

The flames sank toward the center while the stones and steel the mages had fired embraced those flames. Water magic and wind magic covered them above. The knights’ light sabers burned away the fifth apostle’s remains and separated the chaotically mixed elements.

The fifth apostle slowly hardened and became a star.

-How moving. To witness the birth of new land. This Nadia did so well to stay alive. Thank you, administrator.

The gratitude of a very ancient ego reached my ear.

Since the world was torn apart, stars had fallen many times but never had a new star been born. A miracle occurring for the first time in hundreds of thousands of years.

‘With such a spectacle, it would be visible from far away.’

Though the road ahead was long… it would be enough to wash away the despair left by the Magic Emperor’s death.

“Whew… we really won?”

Tris approached my side. She was supporting the battered Kaisel who was barely managing to smile.

“What about Night That Devours Continents?”

“Ah, that calamity died. It was a loyal creature, but… since it was directly mauled by the apostle, there was no choice.”

Tris answered for Kaisel, who didn’t even have the strength to move her lips. The small girl was quite dependable, supporting someone twice her size.

I looked at that child and suddenly realized I had something to convey. Yes. Now seemed like the right time. Now that I had avenged his absurd death with the power and knowledge the Magic Emperor had left behind. Now seemed like the perfect time to deliver his final words.

“Tris.”

“Yeah?”

“The Magic Emperor had something he wanted me to tell you.”

“The Magic Emperor? To me?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he say?”

“…He said he was sorry he couldn’t serve you properly. Even if you don’t remember him, he asked me to please tell you that.”

At that moment, Tris’s expression was strange.

“What? When did he ever see me?”

Tris frowned. She looked baffled and even somewhat disgusted. But… tears began falling drop by drop from her eyes.

“Huh, huh? What? Why is this happening?”

Her voice remained perfectly normal. As if water was just flowing from her eyes. Her gestures and expression were all fine. Only… her eyes wept. Transparent tears stained her cheeks transparently.

For Tris, who couldn’t wipe her tears while supporting Kaisel and was looking confused, I reached out and wiped them away instead. Her cheeks, grimy with ash and dust, were still soft.

After carefully wiping away the tears, I said,

“The Magic Emperor was right, it seems.”

“About what?”

“That souls… reincarnate.”

Dying and being born again. Being born again and dying again.

How many times had she already lived through this damn world? Why?

I couldn’t know the reason… but somehow it felt like I had one more reason why this world absolutely had to be protected.

If the end of countless repeated reincarnations was ultimately the world’s destruction, that would be too unfair.

* * *

[Ah, ah, can you hear me? This is Divine Wizard, Senior Elder of Pathfinder, speaking after a long time. Ah, I’ve become a wizard in the meantime. I don’t have much time, so I’ll get straight to the point. We need everyone’s strength. Our current location is…]

The second broadcast since blocking the Water’s Destruction. Divine Wizard’s name spread across the entire world.