The Serpent of Origin

As soon as they entered the sea, Krade formed droplets on his fingers.

When Pernok swallowed the droplet offered silently, his breathing opened up completely.

“You even knew about the tears.”

“I know most things about the Scale Tribe.”

If one ingests droplets created by gathering the tears shed by Scale Tribe members, they can breathe underwater for about three hours.

The creation method and materials are difficult, and since they can’t be preserved for long periods, even their efficiency drops.

Though these droplets had absolutely no commercial value, they were perfectly suitable tools for Pernok right now.

Even while riding on the Scale Tribe’s swift mobility, his breathing didn’t become disrupted like it would on land.

“Chief! We must treat your wounds!”

“I’m fine. I’ll bring this one to the god myself, so all of you withdraw.”

When a village covered with coral and seaweed appeared, Krade scattered the Scale Tribe.

He entered deep into the village while still restraining Pernok.

Beyond the tall throne, a familiar energy could be felt.

[Why do you seek to accept Origin?]

The Lord of Despair’s memories were stimulated.

It resembled the Lord of Despair so closely that the scene before his eyes was vivid.

[We want to erase all the irrationalities of this land!]

[Master, please bestow Origin upon us!]

[We must soothe the grudges of those who fell unjustly!]

From when had he been called despair? The Lord of Despair didn’t speak of that history.

No, he couldn’t.

Because he in life had been tightly bound up with hatred of everything in the world.

[Those born with Origin are separate. You’re not yet ready to accept the seed.]

Nevertheless, the Lord of Despair would smile in the midst of one daily routine.

It was his disciples.

[We can do it too!]

[We absolutely haven’t forgotten your teachings, Master!]

The disciples were all filled with brilliance and overflowing with courage to stand against injustice.

In the chaotic world, the Lord of Despair wanted to entrust his will to his disciples.

But his Origin was terrible.

If one accepted it carelessly, it would devour all their willpower and turn them into cripples.

The Lord of Despair, who cherished his disciples, always smiled while informing them of Origin’s dangers.

[My Origin dwells in the abyss. A single small seed will create deep darkness in your hearts and suck in all your willpower, so when you abandon all emotions and recover them, you will finally obtain Origin’s seed.]

They must entrust their bodies to darkness, throw their emotions into the abyss, and discover their own paths within.

Only when accompanied by the enlightenment leading to Origin’s ultimate could they obtain the most supreme power in the world.

The Lord of Despair, who had warned his disciples of his own trial and error, soon faced a tremendous ordeal.

When the darkness that swallowed the continent tried to create a new order, grace descended from the heavens to try to purify his despair.

Radiance.

It was called heaven’s grace that opposed Origin.

[I cannot understand your methods, Master!]

Some of the disciples who couldn’t obtain Origin joined the ‘saint’ who wielded Radiance.

The saint was called the incarnation of a god and clashed with the Lord of Despair’s Origin.

The war involving disciples and confidants from both sides only barely reached a conclusion after a month passed.

[Did you hate the world that much?]

The saint was pierced by the abyss.

[I trust no one. So I merely guide them to a comfortable place I can believe in.]

The Lord of Despair was purified by Radiance.

The memories of the two who fell became souls and tangled together in a complex way.

The Lord of Despair, who tried somehow to save his starving family without a single coin as beggars.

The cruel village that set fire to that house, saying Pestilence had spread, as if mocking him.

The castle that blocked him when he tried to judge it and the reproachful gazes.

The Lord of Despair’s memories of never receiving even a single act of kindness created ripples in the saint’s heart.

[You’re entering under someone called the emperor?]

[Won’t you enter as well? That person should be able to resolve our lingering attachments.]

And the two people understood each other only after death.

Together they became Pernok’s subordinates and entrusted their lingering attachments along with their memories.

The Lord of Despair and the saint hoped their successors who followed them would be safe.

If the successors they couldn’t see in Netherworld’s procession had left descendants, they wanted Pernok to take care of even what they couldn’t accomplish.

However, if they were walking a twisted path, they asked him to scold them greatly with a master’s heart.

‘It was ancient history.’

The disciples’ names and characteristics were engraved in his memory.

The memories of the only happiness amid days filled with despair rose up freshly and filled Pernok’s chest with ecstasy.

‘I thought I might not find them.’

Looking at the Tunnel Folk, the hypothesis had been established that if they were other races, they might possess records erased from human history.

‘I’ve discovered your traces, Lord.’

Pernok examined the massive door with eyes soaked in sentiment.

The energy flowing through the door cracks was definitely Origin.

And Origin could only continue to later generations by receiving the Lord of Despair’s seed.

The one who inherited that will was definitely a disciple.

A disciple of the Lord of Despair had planted Origin inside this place.

‘I’ll wash your lingering attachment completely clean.’

Recalling the form of the confidant who was more loyal than anyone in Netherworld and regained hope at the end of despair, Pernok stood before the door.

Krade knelt beside him and cried out.

“I offer tribute to the god, so please grant prosperity to our clan!”

Pernok looked between the door cracks.

As the water rippled, the voice of something harboring Origin could be heard.

[I promise ten years for your clan.]

Then blue light flowed out from the door cracks and mixed into the sea.

The wickedness contained within the clear Origin could be glimpsed.

‘This water accelerates the Scale Tribe’s growth. It’s a method that places that much burden on their bodies. Is this the reason the Scale Tribe’s numbers swelled?’

The more they continued drinking water infused with Origin, unnatural growth occurred.

Krade seemed not to know even this fact.

[However, why have the seeds I planted in you all disappeared?]

“They were smashed to pieces when I clashed with a human.”

[So, is this why the human’s flesh is so disturbed?]

The serpent didn’t perceive that Pernok had deliberately made his mana unstable.

‘Though it harbors a considerable amount of Origin, its skill doesn’t reach that level.’

The only way to discover traces of Origin was to recover similar Origin.

If he possessed the serpent’s Origin that resembled the Lord of Despair’s Origin, he could find traces of the disciples who continued on the continent.

[Nevertheless, you’re brilliant. Now, come closer this way.]

Sinister energy embraced Pernok’s body.

Pernok glanced at Krade and nodded.

Stay about 10km away from the sacred ground.

Recalling the signal they’d arranged before coming, Krade withdrew.

And Pernok entered inside the door readily as if enchanted by the serpent.

Thud!

As if it had been waiting, the door closed, but the interior wasn’t dark at all.

As jewels embedded in the ceiling sparkled and cast down soft light, the coiled scales reflected that light and brightly illuminated all directions.

It was a size that easily rivaled the floating castle.

A massive serpent with dark scales filled that place completely.

A massive head lowered in front of him—so huge that Pernok looked like an ant by comparison.

There were two pairs of red eyes, and a dark blue horn jutted from the brow.

“You look very appetizing up close.”

When the serpent exhaled, the sinister energy surrounding Pernok suddenly extinguished.

It must have expected Pernok to come to his senses now and be flustered by the scene before his eyes.

However, Pernok’s attention continued to remain on the center of the coils rather than the serpent’s overwhelming majesty.

‘That is……’

A pitch-black stone tablet was erected there.

Though there were no letters at all, Pernok knew the method to activate it.

Because the memories kept lingering on the stone tablet.

‘……Pangemonia’s recording tablet.’

It was a tablet made by carving stone discovered very rarely even in the Lord of Despair’s era.

The Lord of Despair mainly used it when writing down enlightenment and giving it to his disciples.

‘When the Lord of Despair carved tablets, he always wrote the disciples’ names. That isn’t the Lord of Despair’s. Then the person who could possess this rare tablet is……’

Pernok’s eyes flashed.

‘……a disciple! It’s definitely one of the two disciples who survived that war’s recording tablet.’

The corners of Pernok’s mouth twitched.

It felt like discovering an oasis in a vast wasteland.

[Have you lost your mind? What is so delightful that you laugh?]

When the serpent flicked its tongue, Pernok felt familiar Origin within it.

‘Is it harboring something similar to the Lord of Despair’s Origin inside that body?’

He immediately opened Observation Eye.

The unique traits of the soul the serpent possessed and its interior appeared as if within grasp.

Something pitch-black and clumped was embedded in the place presumed to be the serpent’s heart.

That was the cause of the Origin that stimulated the Lord of Despair’s memories.

And it wasn’t just one—it harbored two.

‘The ocean’s Origin the serpent was born with and the black Origin embedded in its heart flowing out sinisterly.’

It was endlessly close to darkness.

It was covering darkly the blue that should have been the serpent’s original trait.

The Origin that took root all the way to the soul surpassed the seed stage and germinated, and the serpent could be treated as a mid-level expert even in the Lord of Despair’s era.

In this era, about the level called Magus.

But the harmonious appearance despite harboring two Origins in one body wasn’t ordinary.

Originally, Origin was a power permitted only one per person.

A serpent that naturally flowed out two was an extremely aberrant existence.

“Interesting.”

Pernok strode forward before the serpent.

“If the Lord of Despair had seen you, I think he would have raised you as a pet.”

At his appearance not being surprised at all, the serpent’s eyes became sinister.

[You weren’t caught in my enchantment from the start. However, why did you come all the way here on your own feet? No wait, that’s not it.]

As Pernok’s mana began gathering, the serpent’s relaxed voice became cold for the first time.

[You weren’t subdued by Krade.]

Pernok chuckled.

“Blame your knotted eyes for trying to intimidate me with just this much.”

The serpent’s eyes narrowed.

“For a mere creature that hasn’t even peered into Origin’s abyss to be playing king in this place, it’s truly lamentable.”

As Pernok began gathering mana in the artifact gloves, the serpent felt eeriness and raised its body abruptly.

The ocean’s Origin flowed out from the serpent that had become vertiginously tall, reaching the ceiling.

“You creature who calls yourself a god. Today I’m meeting cherished memories and am in a very good mood, so I’ll give you one choice.”

When Pernok released his mana, the water that had filled this place evaporated in an instant.

“Will you pull out your heart yourself and offer it to me? Or will you be torn apart and eaten by tens of thousands of Scale Tribe?”

A comfortable death and a painful death.

The serpent felt deep humiliation toward Pernok, who mocked it.

[A prey inferior to even a mere insect has only a fresh tongue!]

When the serpent struck with its tail, the door opened and vast amounts of water entered all at once.

Pernok condensed the mana that had dominated the space in the gloves.

[I’ll chew and savor you thoroughly, and show proper dignity to the Scale Tribe who toyed with me!]

When the vortex infused with Origin wrapped around Pernok and rotated as if to tear his body apart, light flashed from the artifact.

Bang!

The momentum that tore through the vortex smashed all the way to the ceiling.

As the serpent raged at its collapsed sanctuary, it opened its wicked mouth.

The darkness’s Origin flowed out and turned shadows cast here and there into blades to shoot out, and Pernok activated magic close to darkness.

Instantly, a pitch-black curtain draped around his body.

When the shadow blades touched the curtain, rather than shattering, they stuck clingingily instead.

[……?]

In that state, the serpent couldn’t do anything.

Pernok’s magic and mana that seeped into the blades began interfering with its Origin.

Similar types of Origin can steal each other’s power.

It’s a kind of tug-of-war—the moment the released power dominates the opponent’s Origin, it extorts everything and makes it its own nourishment.

Origin possessors who can’t overwhelmingly crush their opponents like the Lord of Despair absolutely never leave tails.

Because they don’t tolerate the risk of the opponent’s Origin infiltrating.

Pernok couldn’t steal Origin because he lacked a seed.

However, if he used magic of a similar type, he could interfere with Origin like this.

“You lack fundamentals.”

The darkness’s Origin that emerged from the serpent’s heart was connected to the shadows.

Pernok didn’t miss this golden opportunity.

When he pulled his arm, the darkness’s magic connected to Origin shot to the serpent’s heart where darkness originated in an instant.