The Madman's Tale (4)
I moved my consciousness frantically. But no matter how hard I tried, nothing changed. I tried to move the Invisible Sword, but it wouldn't unfold at all.
*Damn it... what is this?*
Before I was captured by Goe-gun, I thought that turning into a biological puppet meant living forever without ever dying or being born again. That was also the reason I chose suicide back in my previous life, and the reason I tried to kill Kim Yeon in the early days of this life.
*But... not a single one of those puppets I've seen has ever survived.*
In truth, that was exactly what had happened. For ten years, while trapped beneath Goe-gun's orders, I had only been keeping my consciousness from dying. I had even personally inspected his puppets and witnessed him creating and manipulating them with my own eyes.
*They were all just corpses... and what's more, their consciousnesses weren't even there!*
I forced the chaotic emotions in my heart to calm down and began observing my own soul. My soul was firmly lodged in the puppet's upper dantian. The Ghost Qi circuits of Goe-gun, spread out like blood vessels and nerves, were tightly gripping my soul.
*These circuits weren't only on me... they were laid out on every puppet. I learned that the hard way by observing broken puppets. But why only mine still has a soul?*
That was when it happened.
Clack!
My body suddenly stopped patrolling the outer wall. It leaped forward.
It was Goe-gun's summons.
Paaaat!
The place I was summoned to was inside the manor in the Wondrous Castle where Kim Yeon lived. The exact spot where she and I used to meet every day.
And there, waiting for me, were Goe-gun and Kim Yeon.
"Come on! Here's your gift! What do you think?"
"...Huh?"
Goe-gun's mad laughter made Kim Yeon's face grow steadily colder.
"...No? S-senior... no? Right?"
"Hm? Ah! Don't worry! General Seo properly made you my favorite disciple. Now you can control him! You can't disturb the puppet and puppeteer relationship anymore! Enjoy your night!"
Goe-gun cackled like a madman and vanished somewhere. In Kim Yeon's eyes, total despair had taken root.
Swaaaah―
Her will twisted into knots. Rage, grief, despair, pain, panic... Everything mixed into an absolute storm.
"Ah... aaaaa..."
Step, step...
With an empty look, she walked over and hugged me.
"Aaah... uwaaaaa..."
Tremble, tremble...
If she had mastered the Yin Soul Ghost Curse, she probably hadn't even surpassed its original creator.
"Hwaaaaa..."
Kim Yeon screamed.
"Why! Why! Why..."
Tears streamed down her eyes.
"Why...! Why are you doing this to me?! The entire workshop I was expecting vanished and I got dragged into some weird world! I was captured by that crazy old man and survived every day in terror! But! But I kept holding on, thinking that one day I'd meet brother Eun-hyun and leave this place together properly... only that hope kept me alive! But why! Why...!"
Crack, crrrrrack!
Pssst...
Thanks to the Strange Star-Mind Scroll, her consciousness, which had been stable in a spherical form, began to stretch out in all directions like threads.
The threads spread across the entire Wondrous Castle.
"Why are you taking everything from me! Why! Why...!!!!"
Thud!
Kim Yeon collapsed in front of me, clutching my body and sobbing.
"Uwaaaaaaaa!!!"
The air vibrated. The whole space seemed to shake.
And then...
Me.
Clack!
"Please stop causing a disturbance inside the Wondrous Castle."
A mechanical voice, yet so similar to mine, yet so chillingly cold.
"...?"
At that voice, Kim Yeon froze. She looked up at me with glittering eyes.
"...What?"
"Please stop causing a disturbance inside the Wondrous Castle."
"...H-huh..."
Kim Yeon started laughing.
"Alright, I get it... I'll stay still..."
Swaaaah―
Her consciousness, stretched out in all directions, compressed back into a sphere.
And her consciousness began to turn dark red.
To my eyes watching the will, it looked like the entire region she was covering had been swallowed by darkness.
Srrrk...
She began stroking my cheek.
"Just a little longer... wait for me, brother Eun-hyun. I'll definitely take the Wondrous Castle away from Goe-gun, shatter [her] into pieces right in front of his eyes, and avenge you... I'll avenge you."
"Harm to the master and the mistress is not permitted within the castle."
"Ye... yeah... just a little longer..."
*Damn it...*
I tried to extend my consciousness outside the puppet, but I couldn't escape. I was trapped inside the puppet's upper dantian. If only I could reach outside with just my consciousness, I could at least send a message...!
"Just a little! Just a little longer! I'll save you! I'll save you!"
Kwaak!
Kim Yeon's two hands gripped my head. In her eyes, the same madness as Goe-gun's was taking root.
And then...
Twitch, twitch...
'...?'
While she clutched me tightly, something crawled up beneath my feet.
*'This feeling...'*
It was a centipede.
Twitch, twitch...
It slithered between the puppet's joints and crawled toward the body covered in circuits.
Ten years. In ten years, the creature I had raised inside the castle grew rapidly. Because the Ghost Qi environment here was hundreds of times stronger than the underworld, it didn't die easily. And at some point, it realized I was the one feeding it and began following me.
Perhaps because, even though I had become like this, it still recognized me and crawled into my body. I was basically dead... but those who remembered me were still here.
*...Damn it.*
And for these creatures, there was nothing I could do.
Uuuuung!
While my heart was shaking with emotion...
'...?'
Something strange wrapped around my soul.
*'What's this?'*
It felt extremely unpleasant.
And at the same time...
Squelch...
A squishy sensation rose from the corner of my soul.
And since I had reached the peak of the River of Heaven, while observing my own soul, I immediately understood the identity of that sensation.
*'These crazy...!'*
Driven by my emotional torrent, the Ghost Qi circuits inside the puppet were copying my soul! An artificial energy mass that mimicked my emotions perfectly had appeared beside my soul.
It wasn't a complete copy of my soul, only the feelings of the moment.
And then...
Uuuuung!
As the artificial energy mass grew to the size of my soul, my soul began to be pushed out from the upper dantian.
*...This is insane.*
Only now did I understand what those who became Goe-gun's biological puppets endured.
After being transformed into a biological puppet...
At first, they stayed bound to the circuits inside the puppet, still in this world. But over time, the circuits began replicating the soul-like energy masses. Little by little, they copied the original soul until a perfect replica was finished. Then the original soul was released and scattered into the underworld, and the replica took its place.
*'Ah, I see now. The source of the madness felt by manipulating the puppets of the Wondrous Castle.'*
The puppets of the Wondrous Castle contained Goe-gun's 'artificial souls'. Even though the artificial souls were crude energy masses compared to real souls, they were the best possible replicas. They couldn't copy every memory, experience, or emotion, but they could roughly express the intense feelings the original felt.
And the puppets containing these energy masses were all interconnected inside the Wondrous Castle. A world of countless emotions colliding and swirling together. That was the Wondrous Castle.
*'Now I understand how I could sense similar Ghost Qi flows from the puppets... even if not exactly the Seven Emotions.'*
They were energy masses that copied human souls and emitted waves mimicking human will.
*'Then...'*
I looked at Kim Yeon, still half-mad and sobbing in front of me.
*'If this continues... I'll completely die and my regression will be delayed.'*
When the energy mass that had copied my emotions grew to the size of my soul and pushed it out completely, I would reach the end of my 'death'. My regression would only happen then.
Kim Yeon clung to the decorations on the puppet's body.
"Brother, tell me... say something."
"What? You were comforting me just a second ago."
"Eun-hyun oppa, huh?"
"...Why, no words? Why? Why?"
"...Answer me. Answer! Answer me! Please! P-please! Hwaaaaa!"
And while watching the girl clinging to me, I realized.
*'I can't... die.'*
Uuuuung!
I forcefully crammed back into my body the small soul that had been released outside. I would never be trapped in this puppet for a thousand years. As I had seen before, this puppet didn't even have a soul.
I could regress easily.
But...
*'What am I supposed to do with the people left behind...?'*
I had already failed and accomplished nothing. Even if I was trapped in a puppet and lived in misery...
This...
*'Is my life!'*
It wasn't pleasant or bright. But the heart I had shared with Kim Yeon was still a heart. Because I had shared my heart with her, this life was a blessing.
*'Would I really throw away the blessings given to people so easily?'*
Uuuuung!
With my own mental power, I pushed back the replicated energy mass instead.
And at some point...
Paaang!
The hastily formed energy mass couldn't withstand my pressure and exploded, scattering the Ghost Qi that made it up throughout the puppet's upper dantian.
*'I can use this.'*
Uuuuung!
I decided to use the Ghost Qi from the artificial soul I had exploded. I couldn't extend my consciousness outside the puppet, but the Ghost Qi from the artificial soul should be controllable with my consciousness.
And that was when...
Wungseong wungseong wungseong...
When I extended my consciousness into the artificial soul's Ghost Qi...
I felt the voices of hundreds of billions of humans stabbing straight into my brain at once.
Hundreds of billions of puppets inside the Wondrous Castle. The emotions they emitted. One.
*'I am not a heart that loses to all of you...!'*
Kuuuung!
I answered the countless humming with the pain I had endured and ignored it.
Uuuuung!
The Ghost Qi circuits that had been suppressing my soul... a tiny portion of them infiltrated my consciousness.
Kuguguguk!
As my soul took control of the Ghost Qi circuits, they resisted. It felt like an act not permitted. A powerful pressure struck my soul.
And then...
Twitch, twitch...
The centipede that had crawled inside my body slithered toward the head where the circuits were most active.
And...
Srrrk, srrrk...
Whether I knew or not... or simply instinct... I don't know. But that creature gnawed at one of the circuits that was most suppressing me.
Kuuung!
Thud!
At the same moment, my body felt something moving wildly inside and moved on its own, raising the pressure of Ghost Qi inside to burst the centipede.
The centipede exploded and died on the spot. Since the blood vessels of Won Rip to regenerate it were also gone, that creature was completely dead.
*'...Thank you.'*
I deeply thanked the unnamed creature, then reached out with Ghost Qi toward the circuit it had gnawed.
Zuuuung!
My body, sensing something wrong with the Ghost Qi circuits, tried to move toward the repair factory... but I was faster.
Paaaaat!
I used the Ghost Qi I had just gathered from the artificial soul to connect the circuit the centipede had gnawed.
The circuit functioned normally. On the surface...
My body stood still again. And through the circuit the centipede had chewed, I began to seize control of General Seo's body even more.
*'Slow...'*
The Ghost Qi from exploding the artificial soul was weak, and since it was connected to hundreds of billions of other artificial souls inside the Wondrous Castle, using it would make the madness surge. Of course, madness could be overcome with mental strength, but considering everything, seizing General Seo's Ghost Qi circuits would take a very long time.
*'Just wait a little longer, Yeon-ah.'*
I looked at the unconscious Kim Yeon who had cried herself to sleep and made a vow.
*'I will definitely tell you that I'm still here.'*
Whether it took hundreds of years... I will tell you I'm still here.
*'Since we have an affinity in this life... I won't take this blessing lightly, live on... and return my heart to you.'*
So just a little longer. Just a little longer, wait for me.
And then, several tens of years passed.
***
"Eun-hyun oppa... do you know what that is?"
Kim Yeon stroked my cheek and said.
"After the Ghost Clan, the Juru Clan, the Palheo Clan, the Geokchi Clan, the So-ryeong Clan, the Duke Clan... and recently, we heard news about our fellow disciples."
A Heavenly Person who had reached the Cheonin realm sat beside me, controlling countless puppets with her fingertips and began to speak.
"Let's start with Manager Jeon Myeong-hoon's story."