Chapter 187. What’s bad?
My fist, carrying sincerity, shook the ancient ruins with a resounding boom.
But how could a person’s sincerity be something you show in a single strike?
Of course, my punching didn’t end with just one.
THOOM, THOOM, THOOOOOOOM―――!
“Y-you, you just now……!”
“Senior, don’t stop me. You rude little punks— I came to save you, and you pull this kind of crap?”
Yes. This is my sincerity.
My sincerity, sent to these ungrateful bastards.
My mood was already not great.
I came here with a heart grounded in justice. I risked my life to save not only the masses of humans, but even the spirits, with a benevolent influence.
So what were these ungrateful spirits dissatisfied with, to interfere like this?
“S-stop! You don’t even have proof the spirits did it! R-right! I’ve heard there are ruins like this sometimes—designed to reject intruders according to their construction……!”
“You’re saying the spirits didn’t do it…… is that what you mean?”
I paused my fist for a moment and turned to him. Senior Myseolne nodded frantically at my stare.
“T-that’s right. It’s only your speculation that it’s the spirits, isn’t it? Why would the spirits do that? More than anyone, they long for freedom.”
“Then…… the ruin is the problem.”
“Yes! Exactly!”
“And…… if I had to guess, it’s this ruin that imprisoned the spirits, too.”
“Th-that…… yes?”
So it’s the ruin.
I nodded along, then turned my gaze to Demian. Whoooosh—! I released magical power, and the dust cleared, showing Demian’s face clearly.
“Demian, you heard that, right?”
“Yeah, I heard.”
“Then what’s bad?”
“The ruin.”
Exactly.
Then what did Chenbi think?
When my eyes reached him, Chenbi spoke as if he’d been waiting.
“I also think the ruin is bad.”
“Right. You think so too? Actually, I thought so as well.”
What’s bad isn’t the spirits. It’s this ruin.
Then what should we do?
“Akjeukmyeol (惡卽滅). It’s best to destroy evil at once.”
“Y-you. What are you saying……?”
“What do you mean, what am I saying? I’m saying I’ll carry out justice. What’s in this fist now isn’t sincerity—it’s justice.”
Justice filled my clenched fist.
I drove that fist of justice straight forward. Whether the bad thing was the spirits or the ruins, what had to be done didn’t change.
Once again, the roar of justice rang through the entire ruin.
“I-it could collapse! Stop! At this rate we’ll all die!”
“My world already collapsed. I came to save you and you’re rejecting me? The reason I flipped in an instant is the spirits’ fault.”
“I told you— it might not be the spirits!”
“Master, I’m tired too. I want to rest even now. I missed them, but it’s only work, spirits. Friend, I’ll help you.”
“What did you even do—!”
Demian pressed up beside me and blasted healing light at me with all his might. I wasn’t actually hurt, so I didn’t really need it, but I gratefully accepted the sentiment.
Right after that, Senior Myseolne turned to Chenbi.
“C-Chenbi. Say something. Stop him!”
“Sir Myseolne, you said we should answer the call of the times. If two out of four agree, isn’t that enough to call it the times’ call?”
“What kind of dogshit—!”
“Everyone dies eventually.”
That’s right—well said, Chenbi!
With Chenbi joining in, an orchestra of madness was born.
When I smashed— tzzzzk!—Chenbi gathered the dust and stone powder together and cleared it away. Sparkle, sparkle. Demian did his utmost to prove his uselessness.
They say even a sheet of paper is better when lifted together, don’t they?
It really was true.
Alone, all I could do was blow things up. But with the useless Demian and Chenbi here, we were advancing little by little.
We were drilling through the wall and pushing forward, even if only bit by bit.
In the middle of that, I flicked a glance back at Senior Myseolne.
‘Senior, what will you do now?’
The tide has turned.
The world is a great river—if you just sit down as you are, you’ll only be swept away by the wave coming from behind. Then wouldn’t it be better to stand at the head of that wave and sprint toward the sea?
At my gaze, Senior Myseolne’s pupils trembled in tiny shakes.
‘Do you truly have to do this? This is far too radical.’
‘Change is something that happens in an instant.’
‘How can you think only of the outcome? What is right must be right even in its process!’
‘The process? Does the world beautify even the process of failure for you? History is written by the victor.’
‘You truly are……!’
In the conversation exchanged through our eyes, we waged a fierce war of words.
Of course, all of that was only my imagination. It differs greatly from reality.
But the result matched my imagination.
“……It can’t be helped. Madlin.”
“You’ve made a wise decision. History, after all, is written around the victor.”
“……I don’t know what kind of nonsense you’re spouting, but I’m too tired to even react anymore. Anyway, I’ll help. It’ll be better to dig a bit more to the left than you are now.”
“Heh.”
A nasty little laugh slipped out before I knew it.
This makes me look like a villain, doesn’t it?
But that’s fine.
‘As long as my heart itself is steeped in justice.’
“Over here?”
“Yes. That way. And Chenbi—help me so the hole doesn’t collapse; reinforce it. We’ll leave the dust and debris to Fury.”
Fury-rit!
Fury joined, right after Madlin.
And that wasn’t all.
“Aiki, if you would.”
Aiki appeared as well—washing us clean of the dust covering us, making the work even more comfortable!
Not bad.
No—rather, it was good.
Feeling the tide of the era inside our unified hearts, I smiled.
‘I can hear the spirits’ cheers all the way here. Are you that happy?’
[No――――!]
The fused spirits erupted into an extreme reaction of rejection.
Had our intent landed?
The reaction was immediate.
Aster stopped his busy fist for a moment and caught his breath.
Kugugugugung……!
A massive roar spreading through the entire ruin—on a completely different level from what they felt earlier.
If earlier was a light taste-test, this sounded like the entire ruin was being rebuilt.
If they could change the structure as quietly as they pleased, but were making this much noise instead, then that must mean they were that excited.
As Aster formed a satisfied, crooked grin, he wasn’t the only one smiling.
“Our sincerity reached them.”
“I don’t know how it reached them, but it feels like it did.”
Demian smiled innocently, and Chenbi lifted the corner of his mouth slightly.
In the midst of that, only Myseolne recognized how serious the situation was.
‘This…… this is not good.’
A ruin that had been quiet until just now grew noisy.
And by “noisy,” it didn’t mean only this rumbling sound.
More than that…… yes, like stepping into a region where the fairy dance is accompanied, the will of the spirits ringing in the ears.
That will was truly miserable.
[No, no, no…….]
Violent rejection.
Myseolne clutched his head and staggered, as if the negative emotion had taken form and was pressing against his skin.
“Master, are you okay? You can’t be hurt.”
Demian clung to him and fired healing light nonstop, but it had no effect.
The pain Myseolne felt wasn’t physical—it was a mental shock brought on by the spirits’ negative emotions.
To Myseolne now, this space was no different from hell.
Like being thrown into the center of negative emotion.
“Ugh…….”
As Myseolne tottered and collapsed, Fury hurried over with worry.
Madlin moved with slow steps, rubbing her cheek against Myseolne’s face, and even the proud Aiki circled nearby with a startled expression.
Once things reached this point, Aster had no choice but to notice how serious it was.
“Senior, are you alright?”
“I-I’m…… alright…….”
Myseolne tried to say something, but he couldn’t finish his sentence.
At that, Aster’s face stiffened.
‘This…… wasn’t in my expectations.’
To think he’d collapse just from the spirits’ voices?
Aster knew Myseolne felt no small degree of fatigue from the spirits’ will that accompanies the fairy dance, but what he saw now was beyond what he’d heard.
Then, how much time passed?
Kugu…… gu…….
The vibration subsided.
And as the vibration faded and the spirits’ voices grew faint, the collapsed Myseolne slowly came back to himself.
“……Are you alright?”
Had he lost consciousness for a moment?
The vision that had gone black slowly cleared, and Aster’s face came into focus.
Myseolne pressed his temples with his fingers, pushing through the throbbing headache as he sat up.
“I’m alright…… no—honestly, I’m not.”
“……I’m sorry. I didn’t expect—”
Aster tried to apologize, but Myseolne shook his head.
“No. It isn’t. Strictly speaking, it isn’t your fault. It’s just…… my spirit affinity being exceptional that’s the problem.”
He wasn’t just saying that.
Myseolne’s spirit affinity—already outstanding—had only deepened year by year, to the point that even he could no longer gauge its limits.
He hadn’t explained it in detail to Aster before, but the voice accompanied by the fairy dance being burdensome hadn’t been solely because of age.
Anyway.
“You don’t need to apologize. It was just too sudden…… your method wasn’t bad.”
Myseolne soothed the apologetic Aster as he spoke.
In truth, if even he couldn’t see a clear solution, he would’ve made the same choice as Aster.
Of course, the difference—if there was one—was that he would’ve tried various other things first.
“Still, this confirms it. I don’t know why, but the spirits are rejecting us.”
Myseolne escaped the pain and calmly organized the situation. But even though the pain had receded, his expression wasn’t bright.
He hadn’t expected the spirits to reject them this violently.
“What will you do? If you want, even now, I’ll try as much as possible to find a way to get outside. Judging by the spirits’ reaction, if we try to leave, it doesn’t seem like they’ll stop us……”
At Myseolne’s question, Aster thought for a moment.
No—he tried to think.
‘If it were up to my feelings, I’d obviously deal with these ungrateful—’
He got exactly that far when—
KWADDEUDEUK, KWADEUK, KWADDEUDEUK!
A monstrous cracking sound suddenly came from beyond the wall.
“……?”
Aster stopped thinking and turned his head toward the source. It wasn’t a conscious reaction. It was, literally, because he heard a sound.
‘……What?’
The sound was chilling. Like something was being smashed, or like something was melting through. And Aster had heard a sound like this once before.
When was it? Right—probably at the final moment of his previous life, when he fought Paharen.
Back then, when the lava Paharen created swallowed stone, it made exactly that kind of sound.
And as Aster recalled that, amid the ghastly cracking—
PUH-EONG―――!
It took one second for one side of the widely-dug tunnel wall to burst outward.
KWADEUK!
“……Kkh!”
It took only two seconds for a vicious hand that shot out from the wall to snatch Aster.
No—less than two seconds.
KWADDEUDEUK, KWADEUK, KWADDEUDEUK!
After grabbing Aster, the massive something immediately retreated back through the hole it had emerged from.
And—
On the third second.
“……Friend?”
Demian’s eyes trembled in tiny shakes as he faced reality.
No—Demian still couldn’t face reality.
In a span of time that felt like mere moments, he traced what had happened in his mind—only forcing the unbearable reality down his throat.
In the midst of that,
Myseolne, leaving the frightened spirits behind, spoke as if entranced.
“Infernal…….”
The name that spilled between his lips belonged to a spirit of the mythic age—
No.
To an evil spirit.
