『Love. Do not stop—love and love again.』
Unlike the religions of reality, abyssal beings truly exist and provide tangible rewards.
It’s just that we treat those who follow them as fanatics because their desires are...
And because the “rewards” abyssal beings grant are things we can never accept.
[screech] [shriek]
Howls from every direction.
“Freud’s favorite theme again.”
Humanity’s most primal, animal urges are being fulfilled in indiscriminate ways.
“U-ugh! G-get away!”
Monsters baring their teeth at everything around them to feed—jamming vicious tentacles or spines in to sate appetite or lust.
[crackle!]
We call it lust, but the manner of satisfaction differs little from eating.
What they want is the most primitive form of a kiss.
[scream]
[squelch— squelch— squelch—]
Saliva or blood—it doesn’t matter.
The act of piercing through the barrier of skin to commingle our fluids.
So you can’t even sort whether what they’re fulfilling is lust, appetite, or just the release of violent impulse.
“Damn it, it’s getting stronger again.”
I thought I’d weakened it for a moment, but under the name of love it’s drawing in fresh sacrifices.
Human blood, death, souls, screams, desires, grudges, fear, rage, hatred, despair—
It guzzles them all and swells in power at terrifying speed.
[vvmmmmm—]
I hurriedly pick one mana-stone from the red mana-stones orbiting me—stones made from my blood—and etch a rune.
It follows a different system than the spells I usually use, but to brace for the worst, I need something with staying power.
In that sense, rune magic is ideal.
[ᚢ (Uruz; Strengthen)]
[zzt—zzt—]
Empowered by the rune, the mana-stone streaks west.
“Captain of Heavenly Gold!”
[scream]
A monster of impossible shape clamps onto Seo Cheonseul: a skull-like head on a bowfin-long neck—thick, supple, and hard—red fins flaring over the body, gold scales, and along the neck a row of muddy pupils budding like knots.
“Bahahahaha! Pathetic!”
He laughs big and boot-kicks the fishlike neck’s head.
[smack!]
The head tears off in a single blow.
No blood jets—only gaudy petals scatter everywhere.
In exchange for warped desires fulfilled, they’ve already been stripped of the right to bleed. Any blood they spill is sacrifice for [Source of Life].
“Gyaaaah!”
The more Seo Cheonseul exerts himself, the more monsters swarm him—
To swallow a piece of him, to jam a piece of themselves into him, to force change upon him, to turn him into the same thing, to become one with him.
To make love to that gorgeous, resplendent goblin.
Or to eat him.
“Bahahahaha!! Excellent! Gather more! Follow this shining Captain of Heavenly Gold!”
With a jaunty drumbeat, Seo Cheonseul flares golden radiance.
He’s drawing too many.
Thankfully, the mana-stone I sent arrives at just the right timing.
“Captain of Heavenly Gold!”
[rumble—]
The bull’s rune, Uruz, grants Seo Cheonseul tireless zeal, savage might, and overflowing energy.
“Huh—secrets from the western lands.”
Even at a distance, Seo Cheonseul looks straight my way and smiles.
“Bahahaha, I’ll buy you a drink later!”
With that, his body rockets skyward—and splits into hundreds of afterimages, storming in all directions.
『I love you. You—love me.』
A surreal vista coils over Cure Medical Care’s vast grounds.
[sharrrrr—]
The giant hands, bunched and writhing in a tight knot, begin a new change.
A pageant of hands opening as beautifully as full-blooming flowers.
A strange procession formed by hands with divine grace and spiritual solemnity.
At each fingertip, a different mudra blooms.
Fractals looping to infinity, or mandalas—bizarre and beautiful and at the same time unbearably repellent.
“What? What act are you putting on now?”
It evokes the Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva who saves all beings. No—this is the most grotesque distortion of that image.
[rrrrr-ruuumble—]
Spreading influence again.
[grrrrrumble—]
This time to the north?
“Damn it, not the north.”
I level Sa-in Chamjeong Sword toward the northbound surge of that surreal message of love.
[Unique function of the SSS-grade weapon Sa-in Chamjeong Sword (Green Existence), ‘Aspect of Sima Yi,’ activates.
// Aspect of Sima Yi: Damage of any attack that targets the good or the benevolent increases by 400%.]
The trait triggers. Because the love is excessively pure, it’s treated as “good,” it seems. Then this is simple.
[Sinister Gaze]
[Flame that Burns Sin]
[Wall of Force]
[Spell Boost: Maximize]
Mana, amplified through the cursed blade forged to cleave the “righteous,” forms a massive magical barrier.
[zzt—zzzt—zzzt—]
“Urgh—heavy.”
Even at +400%, the spell collapses quickly before that dreadful power of love.
Still, I blocked it.
“Still hung up on Jang Hyundeok? The kid says he wants independence! Let him go, you abusive parent!”
Muttering that, I carve a rune into one of the mana-stones.
[ᛖ (Ehwaz; Journey)]
[fweeew—]
Bearing the rune of travel, the mana-stones pull an air show and dart north in an instant.
The hands pouring toward Yang Seoho stop.
[tzzt—tzzt—tzzt—]
The grotesque trees—no, godwrought hands—draw back, opening distance.
“W-where are you... going?”
A dry, crackling voice slips from Yang Seoho’s mouth.
“Why retreat? D-don’t go... I didn’t do anything. Right? No—I was wrong. Don’t go. Come to me.”
Split lips bleeding.
Eyes like someone lost in a desert.
Two hands stretched forward to grasp anything at all.
“Don’t go—”
She begins to take a step, then—suddenly—
Realizes she mustn’t, and pulls her hands in. With hollow, dead eyes she looks at what stands behind her.
A golden pillar of grotesque form.
She mustn’t lose that. The moment it’s taken, ruin will fall on this world.
“Right—the masked mage... left that ominous prophecy.”
Guard it?
I can do that. I can. The thought crosses Yang Seoho’s mind—and with it, a thought so terrifying it freezes her.
“But for how long?”
Since when have I been here? Until when? Why am I here? Why do I have to guard that? Will I be praised if I guard it? Will everyone love me? How did I end up like this?
Why do none of my wishes come true?
Sky and earth tangle, past and present blur—the madness seizes her head.
Among the memories she can still summon, the sharpest and oldest keeps replaying before her eyes.
“Ah... uuuu—”
A memory too old. Her height not even half of now—the reddest, most vivid recollection.
Yang Seoho grips her head with both hands to confirm she is a living being.
In that instant, someone appears before her.
A faint smile touches Yang Seoho’s lips.
Someone she knows.
And now the south.
I pick three of the mana-stones orbiting me and invest them with runes.
[ᛕ (Kenaz; Fire)]
[ᚦ (Thurisaz; Change)]
[ᛊ (Sowilo; Sun)]
The stones streak south.
[rrrrrrumble—]
Farther south lies the sea.
Drawing in seawater, the mana-stones begin to realize a certain spell. It will function even without me.
“Out of the way.”
I swing Sa-in Chamjeong Sword at the giant hands blocking the path.
[Orb of Winter]
[Spell Boost: Maximize]
[krk-krrrck—]
Hands flash-freeze and rupture in an instant.
Through the gap I’ve opened, I drive on without stopping.
At irrepressible speed, the Feast’s Offering burrows and tears through Mother’s embrace.
More hands move to stop him—but they can’t.
Kim Sinhwa will make it in time after all. So [Source of Life] begins the next measure it prepared.
Somewhere, an itchy whisper spreads.
Its content is this:
『By my love, I shall grant your wishes.』
“Woojin.”
Shin Woojin.
The subordinate Yang Seoho trusts most—who has long assisted her—and the one who follows her more than anyone.
Shin Woojin breaks through this forest of death—this grotesque, dreadful grove wrought by a god’s power—and appears before Yang Seoho.
“Team Leader.”
With a sunshine-bright smile, Shin Woojin approaches Yang Seoho.
But something is wrong.
How he entered this dangerous place—irrelevant.
But—
Why—
Is Shin Woojin—
Like—
That?
His hair is still the lionlike shock, but its color has gone snow white.
His skin is mottled with jet-black blotches, as if with some terrible plague.
“Woojin. You? Why? Like that. Why?”
Fragmentary words fall from Yang Seoho’s lips.
“Team Leader. I finally got power.”
Words spill from Shin Woojin that make no sense.
“For you, Team Leader. Power to reach you—haha—power granted. Uh... you heard it too, right? That great voice?”
“Woojin. You. Woojin.”
Yang Seoho fumbles out her reply.
She can’t understand. What is he saying?
“It said—wishes. It said it would grant wishes. It told me to love. To love. Team Leader. Team Leader? Do you remember what you told me? Uh... you told me to live as a person, right? I was born a mutant, lived as a monster, and you gave me the chance to live as a human. Y-you remember?”
“Remember? Remember...? Woojin. Stop. You. Strange.”
“I wanted to say thank you again and again. I kept thinking and thinking—what can I do for you—no, no—what can I give you? How can I reach you? Ah! And then, th-the Great Mother of Beginnings said she would grant my wish—no, your wish.”
A sense in Yang Seoho’s head signals danger. The ability Kim Sinhwa would call [Heightened Vigilance].
Danger? An enemy is readying an attack? Enemy? Woojin is the enemy? Strike first? Me? Attack Woojin? Granting a wish? What wish?
Her mind tangles.
If not for delirium, Yang Seoho would have attacked Woojin.
Crying is only allowed in spare moments.
But the hellish delirium that coils past and present around her ankles won’t let go.
It was Yang Seoho who brought the child-monster Shin Woojin in.
Further back, it was Yang Seoho who turned her parents into scarlet mist.
And now Woojin has sold his soul to an abyssal being—for her.
“Woojin. No. Don’t. Don’t sell. Yourself.”
Shin Woojin lifts an object.
She’s never seen it, yet every trait Yang Seoho possesses screams in unison.
“With this power, I can make what you want come true.”
Love.
Shin Woojin whispers to [Soul Manacle], pouring endless love into it.
“Kr— cha— Uchta— br— toph— sha— s’ak.”
Something approaches.
“Ah...”
Realizing she can’t stop it, Yang Seoho closes her eyes in a light, relieved way—but—
[bzzzzzzzzzt!!]
An immense spill of sparks erupts from [Blade of Flesh].
“Ugh, this is insane!”
Wow—Kim Sinhwa has lost it! Why wedge himself into this!?
Can I even block this?
[The L-grade magical device ‘Soul Manacle’ triggers its unique function, ‘Two Graves.’
// Two Graves: In exchange for the owner’s life, bestows inescapable death upon a chosen target.]
A helpful message prints right before my eyes.
“Oh yeah? Inescapable death, huh?”
And a dreadful force of death shoves me back with absurd strength—to take one person’s life in payment.
[bzzzzzzzzzt!!]
Purple sparks spit in every direction.
If not for [Blade of Flesh], I couldn’t even attempt to block it.
But—this is really heavy, isn’t it? Can I actually hold it? What if I can’t?
Ah—wait. If I can’t hold it, am I the one who dies?
