Seo Hyeol’s Memories (1)
Seo Eun-hyun and Seo Hyeol stood with grim expressions, watching the man who had possessed Oh Hye-seo’s body and was now occupying Seo Ran’s frame.
The instant Oh Hye-seo saw Seo Eun-hyun’s face, terror seized her. She shook with sobs yet thrust both hands upward.
“M-M-M-Master of the Heavenly Venerable! I beg of you! Please, here and now, as the true master and divine being of humanity! Distinguish between the genuine and the false!”
Kugugugugung!
At the same moment, misty vapor swirled around the altar, blocking every entrance with stern resolve. No one could penetrate it.
Yet Oh Hye-seo sensed the gazes sent from beyond—two of them.
That stare!
The monstrous gaze pierced the mist and locked onto her.
Suppressing her fear, Oh Hye-seo sneered at the Seo Eun-hyun outside.
“Hah… ahahaha! What are you doing, Seo Eun-hyun? Come on! Do something! You’re panicking because I called in too many experts. You can’t come in here! Never! You can’t touch us…”
And then Seo Eun-hyun spoke.
“I’m sorry, Oh Hye-seo. Hongyeon. Since you and your companions met Yeon Wi and Heon-won from the very beginning… I should have expected that you would fall into Seo Hyeol’s grasp. It was all… my fault.”
Thud.
Seo Eun-hyun began to walk into the barrier.
Oh Hye-seo collapsed where she stood in shock.
“W-What… why…?”
“The only forgiveness I can offer you… is to remember you. And… to commemorate your deaths… I will eradicate Seo Hyeol and Oh Hye-seo. That is the only thing left. Forgive me!”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Shaking in terror, Oh Hye-seo clutched at the body of Seo Ran and shook it violently.
“S-Seo Hyeol! Seo Hyeol! He’s coming! He’s coming! He’s—he’s—he’s—he’s—he’s—he’s coming!!!”
To spare Oh Hye-seo, Seo Eun-hyun held back his power.
He simply revealed the might of his own Void Shattering body.
That alone was enough to make foam spill from Oh Hye-seo’s lips as she screamed for Seo Hyeol.
Finally, the two beings of Seo Eun-hyun pierced the mist and stood before Oh Hye-seo.
Oh Hye-seo could not endure the pressure and collapsed trembling. Seo Eun-hyun ignored her and stroked the head of Seo Ran.
Seo Eun-hyun closed his eyes for a moment.
Memories from not long ago surfaced.
“Senior-nim. I have something to report.”
“What is it, Seo Ran?”
“Seo Hyeol will devour me at any time. Without me, he would collapse completely. As time passes, I will become more familiar with Takhon Mancheon, while Seo Hyeol will have fewer options left… so he will strike before then.”
“That makes sense.”
“When the time comes… do not stop him.”
“…What?”
At first it sounded absurd.
“Nonsense! Do you even know the horror of Takhon Mancheon?!”
“You need not worry.”
So Seo Eun-hyun ignored Seo Ran’s words and prepared to face Seo Hyeol alone.
Yet…
In those days, Seo Ran’s eyes burned with absolute conviction.
His heart was clearer and brighter than ever.
“I have already… become immune to Takhon Mancheon. Seo Hyeol is probably trying to bet on facing Senior-nim. His gamble failed. Because…”
Seo Eun-hyun looked into Seo Ran’s eyes.
He saw the will burning within.
That will…
was the same will he had learned from Cheongmun Ryeong at Bongrae-do.
It was the will to reach the pinnacle of swordsmanship.
“Because I have known… that I have been loved. I am Seo Ran. Even if I fall into Takhon Mancheon, it will not change the fact that I am loved by Mother. By Master. By Senior-nim. By Siho. By Young-hoon Daeje. By Buk Hyang-hwa. By Kim Yeon Daeje. By Kang Min-hee. By Oh Hyun-seok. By Hong Beom. By Yeon Wi Seonsa. By everyone I have met so far. I am… Seo Ran. Even if I enter the depths of Takhon Mancheon, that truth will never change.”
A will to transform the world through heart alone.
A power far stronger than the swordsmanship that only reshaped the world through “man’s influence.”
Seo Eun-hyun granted Seo Ran’s request.
“And if it is you, Senior-nim, even if I am swallowed by Seo Hyeol… surely you could withstand it?”
In the end, Seo Ran secured a vow from Seo Eun-hyun.
“Do not worry about me, Senior-nim. And if I ever fall to Seo Hyeol… please avenge me instead. I believe you can do it.”
Seo Eun-hyun recalled Seo Ran’s smile.
“You swear?”
Kukuk.
Seo Eun-hyun clenched his fist.
“Oh Hye-seo.”
“Nooo! Nooo! Nooo! It must be Seo Hyeol! It must be Seo Hyeol! He’ll send me away! He’ll find his own body and…”
“That altar you summoned… is it?”
Seo Eun-hyun slowly turned to the altar.
The mistake he had made earlier was that Seo Hyeol had used Oh Hye-seo’s power to hijack her authority and summon the power of the [Name Master].
Because of the ripple from the [Name Master], he had nearly failed to advance to the Gaeyeol realm. He had only been unable to act immediately.
Seo Eun-hyun analyzed the altar and began crushing the one summoned by Oh Hye-seo.
“Using the strength of the experts, climbing up their power one by one, borrowing the strength of the previous king at the apex…”
Kwaaajijijik!
The altar collapsed to dust in an instant when Seo Eun-hyun clenched his fist.
Yet the mist still clung to them.
Seo Eun-hyun interpreted the remaining mist and the technique swirling inside it, speaking to Oh Hye-seo as scales began to sprout across her body.
“Your scheme is predictable. The ancient king was also called the [Name Master]… so through him you will identify whether Seo Ran or Seo Hyeol is the ‘fake’ and erase one of their names.”
Seo Eun-hyun looked down at Oh Hye-seo and smiled.
“But have you never wondered, Oh Hye-seo? What criteria are used to decide who is the ‘fake’?”
Despite the scales sprouting from her entire body, Oh Hye-seo forced herself upright, shaking.
“In the end, whoever occupies the ‘main body’ will be treated as the real one. But… why would you think at the beginning that Seo Ran would have his main body stolen by Seo Hyeol? At the beginning…”
Looking at her with mocking eyes, Oh Hye-seo ground her teeth while trembling in fear.
“Why did you think Seo Ran would be the ‘fake’? Have you never wondered if Seo Hyeol would become the ‘fake’? Could someone with a heart become the ‘fake’?”
Seo Eun-hyun looked at Seo Ran’s face and his eyes shone.
“One who possesses a heart cannot become the ‘fake.’ Therefore, I believe you, Seo Ran! Defeat Seo Hyeol and come back to me!”
***
Takhon Mancheon core.
Inside it, Seo Ran smiled gently.
Crimson-black darkness wriggled, trying to invade his body, but warm rays of light burst from the very center of his consciousness, preventing it.
Seo Ran smiled wryly and gazed at the darkness before him with warm eyes.
“…It seems I have won the match. Grandfather Seo Hyeol… no, Seo Hyeol.”
“….”
“Your darkness cannot invade me. Because I…”
“Have been loved.”
Seo Hyeol cut him off and looked at Seo Ran with an expressionless face.
“That is correct. Regardless of what you may have endured in the past… your darkness can never invade me. You have received the hearts of countless people. So… as long as that heart remains inside me, I can never disappear!”
Deeeeng-
Seo Ran looked up at the sky of darkness.
Chiiiiii-
Mists!
Before a colossal misty giant.
They had reached that place.
The misty giant held a scale in one hand, and Seo Ran and Seo Hyeol each occupied one side, staring at each other.
The scale on Seo Hyeol’s side was slowly sinking, while the one on Seo Ran’s side was slowly rising.
“I am the ‘genuine.’ So accept defeat. Seo Hyeol…!”
“…Hah.”
And Seo Hyeol laughed.
Not the gentle smile he usually wore.
A smile that showed teeth and moved muscles awkwardly…
Seo Hyeol’s unique.
A sincere smile.
“What do you even know about those little things?”
***
Seo Eun-hyun stared at Oh Hye-seo, scales sprouting all over her body yet crawling slowly toward his ankles.
“Ah… aaaaah… uwaaaah… aah…”
Shivering from his pressure, she still crawled forward.
Slowly. Slowly.
And she raised her head and spoke to him.
“Y-you… are… wrong…”
“…What is wrong?”
Seo Eun-hyun looked at her with cold eyes.
And Oh Hye-seo laughed.
“Simply… the altar I built to reach the [Name Master], not that.”
“Why tell me?”
“…You. There’s a colleague among us who’s forgotten something, right?”
At those words, Seo Eun-hyun’s body jolted.
And he quickly swept consciousness over all of Samok-do, his face twisting like a demon.
Kwaaajijijik!
Seo Eun-hyun grabbed Oh Hye-seo’s throat and glared at her.
[Return him at once.]
“…I can’t…”
Frozen by fear of Seo Eun-hyun, she still did not move.
She simply smiled.
And beneath her shadow, a fragment of the altar shattered by Seo Eun-hyun.
Among them, the fragment depicting the heavenly fox glowed with sinister light.
***
Takhon Mancheon core.
At the same moment, in the place where the [Name Master] judged genuine from fake.
Seo Ran’s eyes widened as he looked at the ‘someone’ who had appeared.
It was Siho.
“Using Oh Hye-seo to disrupt the saintess’s eyes and, while his mind was distracted, bring the soul of the fox clan who can be called the distant descendant through the power of the heavenly fox.”
Seo Hyeol flicked his fingers with an emotionless face.
The next instant.
It seemed Takhon Mancheon of Seo Hyeol covered Siho’s soul and began to writhe.
Immediately after.
Horrible screams began to echo from within the sphere that now covered Siho.
“From now on, I will torture your beloved.”
“…! Seo Hyeol!!!”
And Seo Ran’s face twisted violently.
Yet at the same moment, the light bursting from Seo Ran’s consciousness trembled.
Seo Ran forced himself to keep his composure while looking at him.
Seo Hyeol lifted the corner of his mouth and stared at Seo Ran.
“Why do you care so much about that? It’s meaningless anyway. Do you really believe you love that person? Wrong. I only made you act like a female because I filled every motherly part inside you. You simply grew up with all positive connections blocked beneath me from childhood, falling into a state of love deficiency.”
Every word made the light in Seo Ran’s eyes shake violently.
“You do not love that person. That person was merely beaten by Kim Young-hoon and then fell into Takhon Mancheon, loving it. It is nothing but a false connection. You, who fell into love deficiency, simply bet Takhon Mancheon on the fox clan to gain the opportunity to melt the motherly part hidden inside you. It is no different from a simple outburst of lust.”
“Seo Ran. From the beginning… you are an existence that can give and receive neither love nor any kindness.”
Every time Seo Ran’s light shook, the darkness of Takhon Mancheon seemed to dig deeper into him.
Kiiiiiik…
The scales they sat on began to change positions.
Seo Ran sank, Seo Hyeol rose.
Yet at some point.
Srruurrk…
Seo Ran’s rays stabilized.
Seo Hyeol watched and erased his smile.
“…Don’t you understand? You have never received any love from the beginning…”
“No. Seo Hyeol.”
Seo Ran met Seo Hyeol’s eyes.
“You are wrong.”
The smile that bloomed on his face made Seo Hyeol’s eyelids twitch.
“I have never brainwashed Siho with Takhon Mancheon. And my sexual preference is normal. I have never been a male fox who wears women’s clothes and brags.”
“…Pathetic.”
“Yes, truly pathetic. But the result is the same.”
Seo Ran smiled with a slightly embarrassed expression.
A sudden confession that had nothing to do with the current atmosphere.
Seo Hyeol, however, maintained an even colder expression and glanced up at the sphere of Takhon Mancheon that held Siho.
Inside, the pained moans had noticeably weakened.
‘One round just now interfered with my Takhon Mancheon. Are you becoming more accustomed to operating it?’
Seo Hyeol raised his guard and glared at Seo Ran.
Seo Ran continued.
“I wanted Master to come back. But Master trusted me and left. And… Lord Jeon-hyeong, who you call, also loved me despite your wishes and left. All of this proves one truth.”
Seo Ran’s eyes burned in the darkness.
The light in Seo Ran’s eyes began to drive away the darkness inside.
“Human benevolence. Rina. Stands above Takhon Mancheon! Above anything!”
Even though Seo Ran had not wished for Master’s death, Song Jin had believed in and loved him without reservation.
Even though Seo Ran had not tried to accept Siho, Siho had loved Seo Ran enough to transcend gender, race, and brainwashing.
Even when everyone bet Takhon Mancheon to outmaneuver Seo Ran, Jeon-hyeong had truly cherished him, so Seo Ran did not commit suicide.
And…
Yu-o, who was destined to be completely corrupted by Takhon Mancheon, gave birth to Seo Hyeol instead of Seo Ran because of her love for him.
“I will not lose. Seo Hyeol. None of my everything was a lie! Because it was not a lie, I believe Siho will endure. I also love him now!”
Paaaah!
The pure light bursting from Seo Ran’s eyes brightened the core of Takhon Mancheon.
Kiiiiiik-
The scales on which Seo Ran and Seo Hyeol sat returned to horizontal.
Seo Hyeol looked at such Seo Ran with an expressionless face.
“…Love. Your act is good.”
He opened his mouth while glaring at Seo Ran.
“You even became jealous of Yuk Yo, yet you dare to speak of love?”
At those words, Seo Ran broke into a cold sweat.
‘This is the real thing now.’
Seo Ran hardened his heart against the ominous flame radiating from Seo Hyeol.
Seo Hyeol flicked his finger with an emotionless, empty-eyed expression.
“If you want that, I will tell you. If you can endure this hatred, then I will lose. Now, let us recall my oath together. You, the other me.”
Immediately after.
Takhon Mancheon core.
The memories of Seo Hyeol’s ‘childhood’ that had been carefully preserved there crashed over Seo Hyeol and Seo Ran.
***
Siho wailed in terrible agony and regained consciousness.
‘This place is…’
The core of Takhon Mancheon.
Thanks to the schemes of Seo Hyeol and Oh Hye-seo, Siho had arrived here without the slightest resistance, swept away by the distant ancestor’s power.
Here he had become the sacrifice between the two personalities who shared one essence—Seo Hyeol and Seo Ran.
The last thing Siho remembered was that Seo Ran had briefly woken his mind with a joke, and then Seo Hyeol had moved a crimson wave that covered both Seo Ran and himself.
‘What happened… to the result…?’
He regained consciousness and looked at Seo Hyeol and Seo Ran standing on the strange scales.
And then.
Kiiiiiik…
The scales shook violently, and Seo Hyeol and Seo Ran regained consciousness and opened their eyes.
And Siho could only freeze in shock.
‘T-tainted!?’
Seo Ran!
He had been dyed crimson-black like Seo Hyeol.
Seo Ran was crying blood.
“…So that’s it. That’s why I was jealous of her. That’s why I wanted to destroy her. This world is really…”
And the eyes of the suffering Seo Ran and Siho met.
Siho felt deep despair, pain, and sorrow in Seo Ran’s pupils.
‘Seo Ran…’
He had liked Seo Ran.
Not because of Takhon Mancheon.
Simply because he liked him.
From the day they first met, regardless of race, gender, position, or realm.
Although the two of them were not a perfect match in any way, Siho had wanted to be with Seo Ran.
That was why he could not simply watch Seo Ran suffer.
Siho shouted while gazing into Seo Ran’s eyes amid the agony of the Takhon Mancheon torturing him.
“Seo Ran!!!”
Seo Hyeol turned back with a meaningful smile.
Seo Ran stared blankly at Siho.
“Don’t forget me!!!”
Seo Ran’s pupils widened.
The despair in his eyes seemed to recede slightly.
And Seo Hyeol’s pupils split vertically.
Buk!
That was the end.
Siho’s life ended like that.
***
Seo Ran stared ahead with blank eyes.
Siho’s soul was torn away.
Siho’s body.
His neck was ripped out.
The arms, legs, and tail of the body were all torn off, and the shredded soul of Siho scattered deep into the darkness of Takhon Mancheon.
Siho was dead.
The end.
Seo Hyeol smiled gently while killing the Siho who had been meant to serve as Seo Ran’s greatest support in the most dramatic moment.
“I won. Seo Ran. Disappear.”
Kiiiiiik…
Seo Ran’s body lowered its head blankly.
The scale it sat on slowly sank.
Seeing Seo Hyeol’s memories and receiving a huge shock to his true nature, Seo Ran despaired at the sight of his beloved Siho being torn to death while cheering him on.
An irreversible wound.
The scale on which Seo Ran sat slowly sank lower, and the light that had protected him was eaten away by darkness.
And then, as Seo Ran’s body was about to fall completely into the darkness and melt.
Uduk-
The scale stopped.
Seo Hyeol looked down with a puzzled face.
Seo Ran was looking up at him, scraping the bottom of the scale so hard that his fingernails were torn out.
The face of Seo Ran, who was clearly losing and filled with despair, carried one resolve.
“Seo Hyeol. Yes. Right now I have lost.”
Even while speaking, his body gradually melted into darkness.
But for some reason, Seo Hyeol felt that the light shining from Seo Ran’s eyes had not completely disappeared.
“But… even if I despair, the fact that I have been loved and that my connections exist does not disappear. Never.”
Kkik, kiiigigik, kiiigigik!
The scale on which Seo Ran sat began to tilt.
Seo Ran’s body slid gradually into the deep darkness.
“I… have been loved. By Mother. By Lord Jeon-hyeong. By Senior-nim Wol-hyun. By Master. By everyone! I will… die, but…”
Seo Ran slid quickly from the scale.
“As long as the truth that I have been loved… will never disappear!”
And finally, Seo Ran’s body fell from the scale.
Seo Ran fell into the deep darkness.
“So! My heart too!!!”
Seo Ran began to melt.
Thick darkness invaded him.
Yet for some reason, Seo Hyeol could not tear his eyes away.
It seemed the rays contained in Seo Ran’s two eyes were holding him in place.
“I will never disappear!!”
With those words, Seo Ran disappeared.
Jiieing!
At the same moment, the judgment of the [Name Master] to distinguish genuine from fake among the two personalities that had merged into one body descended.
Deeeeng!
In this world, the name [Seo Ran] was taken in by the [Name Master].
Now Seo Hyeol could no longer recall the name of ■■ that he had been fighting until just a moment ago.
At the same time, the name of ■■ was erased from most mortals in this world, excluding Seo Hyeol himself.
As if it had been cut from history.
Thus, ■■ had been defeated.
Only Seo Hyeol remained.
But Seo Hyeol felt that the desperate voice left behind by ■■ at the last moment somehow resonated with his heart.
Why?
Seo Hyeol sensed that someday that voice would greatly change his fate.
“…It doesn’t matter.”
Seo Hyeol decided to forget the name and last words of the defeated.
Because he had a goal he had sworn since the day he first opened his eyes in this world.
Seo Hyeol finally reclaimed his own main body that ■■ had stolen from him.
He had recovered the ‘emotion’ that he had hidden for thousands of years.
“Ah… ah…”
Inside the core of Takhon Mancheon, where the traces of the [Name Master] had disappeared and only he remained.
There, for the first time in thousands of years, Seo Hyeol trembled while holding his chest as the waves of fierce emotions erupted upon meeting the recovered ‘childhood’ memories and the memories stored in the core.
“…I hate… it…”
And Seo Hyeol, who had controlled his emotions for a short time, finally opened his eyes in reality.
***
Ta-dak!
A moment.
When Seo Ran opened his eyes, he suddenly flicked his finger and Oh Hye-seo, Heon-won, and Yeon Wi moved outside the Unfading Sword Barrier.
I looked at the [guy] in front of me.
The eyes of the [guy] had completely changed.
They were neither those of Seo Ran nor Seo Hyeol.
Neither empty pupils nor hopeful pure ones.
Those pupils were hazy.
They seemed to lack focus… and at the same time, beyond the simple ‘malice’ felt from Seo Hyeol…
Horrific pain and hatred were felt.
I could understand what was happening.
“…What happened to [Seo Ran]? Seo Hyeol.”
At the name I uttered, Seo Hyeol flinched.
But he smiled and said.
“What are you saying, Seo Doo. From the beginning, there was only one body.”
“…Is that so?”
I reached out with sad eyes.
“No matter what, according to Seo Ran’s words… I will avenge you. It is the share of Seo Ran… and the shares of Oh Hye-seo and Hongyeon, those children.”
Kwa-jik!
I crushed the Seo Hyeol before me to death.
Yet his soul was not caught.
It had probably moved to a distant place through the Takhon Mancheon core.
I stretched out my hand with cold eyes.
“I will not miss you.”
***
Kugugugug!
Oh Hye-seo cried while looking at countless stars passing around her.
After thousands of years!
Finally!
She had been released from inside Seo Eun-hyun’s body!
“S-Seo Hyeol! He’s out! He’s finally free!”
“….”
However, Seo Hyeol’s expression while leaping over the distant distance together with her was not bright.
Seo Hyeol glanced at Heon-won and Yeon Wi held in his two hands, then looked back.
Kugugugugug!
From far away, Seo Eun-hyun’s [hand] was chasing them.
“…He keeps chasing. Strange. How can he track me? There must be something… something…”
Seo Hyeol frowned while rapidly leaping across countless stars with Oh Hye-seo, Heon-won, and Yeon Wi.
Strange.
He had erased all traces of every Seo Hyeol inside Samok-do through Takhon Mancheon.
He had even succeeded in extracting Seo Eun-hyun’s Asim-geom from his body.
Reclaiming his main body and finding the [eye] were not impossible.
Yet… Seo Eun-hyun was still chasing him across thousands of light-years.
‘How? How, how can he… me…’
And while pondering, Seo Hyeol suddenly discovered something.
It was a trace left inside his Takhon Mancheon.
It was not a mark left by Seo Eun-hyun.
Rather than that, it was more like…
A trace of something having left the ‘inside’ of Takhon Mancheon toward the ‘outside.’
‘This trace… could it be…!’
And Seo Hyeol’s face, which discovered the true identity of the trace, twisted like a demon for the first time since opening his eyes in this world.
“You…! You! You betrayed me!!! How did you do it!!! How did you do it!!! Even if it’s like that, you are me!!! How could you pass my oath to someone else!!”
Seo Hyeol roared with genuine anger in the space of the universe.
■■, whose name was now forgotten.
During the fight with Seo Hyeol.
Seo Hyeol had transferred the [memory] of Seo Hyeol outside of Takhon Mancheon to Seo Eun-hyun.
And Seo Eun-hyun was tracking Seo Hyeol based on the ‘memory’ delivered by ■■.
Seo Hyeol spat at ■■ with genuine venom.
As long as there was the ‘memory’ delivered by ■■ in Seo Eun-hyun’s hand.
Seo Hyeol could never escape the pursuit of Seo Eun-hyun.
Because the memory and oath of Seo Hyeol were the very essence of his body.
***
I tracked Seo Hyeol and Oh Hye-seo with a solemn expression while holding the information body containing the memory of Seo Hyeol that [Seo Ran] had passed to me.
This hand felt as if it held the very essence of Seo Hyeol and kept resonating with him without rest.
Yes, this was like…
the relationship between the blood of the sea dragon clan and the blood-wind true blood.
It seemed to connect them simply by existence.
“…[Seo Ran]. I will never… forget you.”
I traced the [memory] of Seo Hyeol, obtained without loss or resistance through the sacrifice of [Seo Ran], and followed them.
The past of Seo Hyeol unfolded in front of my eyes.