Stranded (4)
My daze lasted only a moment as I stared up at the ark. Quickly pulling myself together, I stammered toward the android—no, the Planetary Information Terminal.
"...Is that the rescue party?"
"Affirmative. Calculations tracing the ark's trajectory indicate its point of origin was Pandemonium, located in Dimensional Depth 666. Cross-referencing this with the records of your dimensional communications community, the Demon Lord Gallery, there is a 99.84 percent probability that the vessel is indeed your rescue party."
"Ha..."
It felt absurd to ask someone outside the forum whether that was my rescue party, but I had good reason. Practically speaking, would anyone mobilize on such a staggering scale just to retrieve someone like me—a mere avatar of a freshly awakened Demon Lord? No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like an obscene over-investment.
I had imagined a rescue party consisting of magic-oriented Demon Lords like Odin or the Marquis of Wolves tearing open a dimensional rift to haul me out. I never dreamed a colossal vessel straight out of ancient mythology would descend from the heavens.
...Do they value me far higher on the gallery than I realized?
Just as I was seriously pondering whether to recalibrate my self-worth, a sharp shriek cut through the air.
Creak—
With the groan of sliding timber, a hatch slid open along the flank of the ark that blotted out half the sky. A wooden ladder came unrolling down toward the metallic crust of the planet. Then, stepping off the bottom rung, the rescuer finally came into view.
"Good to meet you. On the gallery, they call me Boatman."
He was an old man.
"Ah, hello."
Faced with such an affable greeting from a grandfatherly elder with a warm, gentle countenance, I reflexively extended a hand and exchanged bows. I could hardly help it. Standing before me was a genial, harmless-looking country grandfather chuckling softly. How could I not show basic courtesy? The Confucian DNA ingrained into anyone from the 'Polite Nation of the East' took over automatically. Never mind that I grew up an orphan with no elders to speak of.
Only after trading pleasantries did my senses fully snap back.
The moment clarity returned, a sharp pang of suspicion took hold. The natural ease of our greeting had momentarily distracted me, but no matter how grandfatherly he appeared, the man standing before me was still a Demon Lord. That meant he could easily be a monstrous powerhouse harboring unfathomable strength, just like Moses, the 'Ten Commandments' I had witnessed in the arena.
Odin's words—rarely wrong when it came to forum dynamics—flashed through my mind: 'Most Demon Lords rocking an old-man customization are raving lunatics.'
"Um... you're really the rescue party from the gallery?"
"That I am. The moment Bassago contacted me, I made preparations and came running. Took a bit longer than I thought, though."
As the elder—Boatman—nodded with a benevolent smile, a pang of guilt pricked at my conscience.
"...Thank you for your trouble. Putting yourself through all this hassle just for me—"
"Hahaha! It's no trouble at all. To tell you the truth, those Pandemonium assemblies never sit well with me. Sitting through them is pure torture every single time. Using you as an excuse to slip away was a blessing, so if anything, I should be thanking you."
Boatman waved a hand dismissively, his hearty laughter radiating the utter harmlessness of a benign rustic elder.
...Is he just someone specialized in dimensional transit?
"Still, to go through so much for a single avatar..."
"A single avatar? What nonsense! Every drop of experience an avatar gathers becomes blood and bone for the soul. Besides, you ought to witness a Pandemonium assembly at least once yourself."
Our conversation went on like that for several moments until the Planetary Information Terminal, who had been watching us quietly from the side, stepped in to interject.
"Apologies for the interruption. However, calculations indicate our remaining time is severely constrained. I must take the liberty of intruding to ensure timely departure."
"Hmm, quite all right. You're... the Planetary Information Terminal of the Dimensional Empire, was it? What is your message?"
"Yes. Regarding the transport vessel belonging to the rescuer—the ark positioned above us. Mathematical projections indicate it cannot sustain its presence here for long due to the strain of causality and dimensional stability."
Her assessment was spot on.
Following the terminal's raised finger, I looked up at the sky where the immense hull still eclipsed the heavens. Fine, spiderweb-like fissures were already beginning to hairline across the space surrounding the vessel.
"...Hoh. Even the ark cannot hold out for long, it seems. No time to dally, then."
"Correct."
"Then we must depart at once. Lad, you know how to climb a ladder, yes? Get up there, quickly."
"Ah, yes!"
At Boatman's urging, I sprinted toward the wooden rungs. Climbing upward, I watched the fissures in the sky widen by the second, their sinister creep warning of impending collapse.
Midway up, noticing no sound of pursuit, I glanced down. The old man had lingered below, murmuring something to the Planetary Information Terminal.
"—causing plenty of trouble for you lot as well, I see. Even an empire that seemed omnipotent ends up stumbling here. Well, we're searching for our own solutions in our own way..."
"...I place my hopes in your success, Lord Boatman."
"Right. If I ever have reason to pass through again, I'll pay a visit."
That was all I could catch by straining my hearing. Tucking the realization that some sort of mutual request had been made into the back of my mind, I scrambled up the rest of the ladder.
When I finally stepped onto the ark, confusion struck me.
"...Is this seriously all there is?"
It wasn't just the exterior; the interior was composed entirely of bare timber. There was no furniture, no decor, no partition walls—nothing but desolate, echoing emptiness. Combined with its unfathomable scale, it felt less like a ship and more like walking through a cavern carved out of ancient wood. It appeared to be nothing more than a raw, utilitarian transport barge scaled up hundreds or thousands of times over.
Murmuring in equal parts awe and bewilderment, I made my way up to the main deck. To my astonishment, the very old man who had been standing on the planetary crust moments ago was already seated dead center on the deck.
"Whoa, you startled me..."
"Did I give you a fright?"
"...Weren't you just down below?"
"This ship is no different from an extension of myself. The vessel is me, and I am the vessel."
Leaving me to chew on that cryptic riddle, the old man chuckled, walked over, and patted me gently on the shoulder.
"Don't make such a face. I'll explain everything shortly. Come now, make yourself at home. The voyage to Pandemonium will take a fair bit of time."
"When are we setting sail?"
"We already have. Look above you."
Startled by his claim, I whipped my head upward. The clear, synthetic blue sky that had stretched overhead moments ago had vanished without a trace, replaced by a churning, ink-black expanse of rippling dimensional void.
"That is the scenery throughout dimensional transit. Nothing much to look at, so just take a good rest."
True to his word, Boatman leaned back onto a wooden sun lounger that had sprouted seamlessly from the deck planks.
This old man was certainly far from ordinary.
"...Um, could I ask for one as well?"
At my hesitant request, a section of the timber deck shifted and rose, molding itself into a sun lounger tailored perfectly to my height and frame.
I sank onto the lounger and savored the quiet respite. After resting for a while, a sudden realization struck me like a cold splash of water, forcing me upright.
"...Ah, forgive me. I just realized I haven't even given you a proper greeting. I'm Shin Soohyun, the Demon Lord using the IP ㅇㅇ(111.432) on the Demon Lord Gallery. Thank you once again for rescuing me."
Something had been nagging at me the entire time. To think I had neglected something as fundamental as introducing myself and offering formal gratitude. I felt profoundly foolish.
"Didn't I tell you there's no need to stand on ceremony? Still, I gladly accept your greeting. I am Noah, the Demon Lord using the fixed nickname 'Boatman' on the Demon Lord Gallery. Let us have a pleasant journey together."
"Pardon?"
My train of thought ground to a dead halt.
Noah?
As in... the Noah from Noah's Ark in the Bible?
The initial shock of learning the old man's identity was Noah faded quickly.
Noticing my stunned expression, Noah seemed to have guessed the reason and asked a few questions along with a favor. Carrying out his request kept me far too busy to dwell on the revelation.
"That should be all of it!"
"Received. Thank you kindly."
What I was operating right then was the Demon Lord Gallery interface. Specifically, I had just sent several private messages to the registered user 'Boatman'.
The contents of those messages were none other than the Holy Bible.
During the seven days I spent preparing for the Pandemonium assembly, I had manually transcribed excerpts from several historical texts and mythologies into my gallery notepad. Naturally, I hadn't forwarded the entire Bible to Noah—only the passages recounting the story of Noah's Ark.
After lounging on his wooden deck chair and reading through the private messages for quite some time, Noah chuckled softly and closed the gallery window.
"Haha, quite a fascinating read."
"...What did you think of it?"
I asked because his expression seemed reasonably pleased. I was curious about his raw reaction, but even more desperate to know how my world's myth tied into his reality.
"First and foremost, it will make excellent research material regarding interdimensional parallels. Odin and I had recently hit a wall in our joint study, and this might just provide the breakthrough we needed."
"Come to think of it..."
I remembered Odin mentioning previously that if I had questions about interdimensional similarities, I should ask Boatman.
"Ah, if it was Odin, he surely must have dropped my name to you at least once."
"Yes, he did."
"Thought so. In any case, while it serves well as an academic reference..."
"While it serves well?"
"To me, the very subject of this tale, it reads like pure, absurd fiction."
"Excuse me?"
Absurd fiction? Which part?
As if intending to unravel the confusion etched onto my face, Noah calmly began to unfold his past.
"The world before it was swept away by the Great Deluge... Ah, forgive me. Would you mind if I indulged in an old story of mine?"
"Not at all. Please, go ahead."
"Then I shall continue. The author of this scripture described the world before the Great Deluge far too simply. They summed it up as mankind's corruption, but it was hardly something that could be dismissed with such light phrasing."
"Corruption, you say?"
"Indeed. Imagine a world where the bonds between parent and child had dissolved entirely; where beings cared for nothing beyond their own immediate self-preservation; where every soul would sell off anything and everything in exchange for strength, longevity, authority, and wealth. That place was nothing short of a living hell."
"A living hell..."
"They were vile wretches unworthy of being called living creatures. And it was not merely mankind—every beast of the earth was equally depraved. Horses copulated with dogs, zebras devoured lions... Not a single thing in that world remained sane."
As Noah spoke, the gentle warmth on his face began to fracture.
It was an expression of someone desperately swallowing down profound sorrow and bottomless fury.
"And in that wretched world, by pure stroke of luck—or perhaps misfortune, I cannot say—I was born with a sound mind and a healthy body. And because of that clarity, I went steadily mad with every passing day as I watched the horrors around me."
"..."
"Just as I stood on the brink of losing my sanity entirely, a divine revelation descended upon me. It commanded me to construct an ark and prepare for a great deluge. It bade me gather every beast by pairs and seek out righteous souls to board the vessel."
Noah paused, his gaze drifting upward toward the churning, ink-black void beyond the ship. After watching the dark dimensional currents for a silent moment, he clicked his tongue softly and resumed his tale.
"The scripture you gave me claims that Noah built the ark while the wicked mocked him, leaving him with no choice but to board only his family and the animals."
"...That's how the story goes, yes."
"Except I did no such thing. The world was teeming with cunning, sharp-witted scavengers, and there was not a single righteous thing beneath the heavens. Myself included. And above all... I had no family."
A sudden, icy shiver ran down my spine.
It lasted only a fraction of a second, but the bloodlust that bled from him in that heartbeat was suffocating.
When Noah parted his lips again, the words that followed were utterly chilling.
"And so... I built the ark in absolute secrecy. I built it vast enough to escape that world entirely. And then... I did not permit a single soul, nor a single beast, to set foot upon this ship."
"..."
"Then the Great Deluge descended. Every living thing in that world perished, save for me. Not long after, a voice whispered that I had awakened as a Demon Lord. When some time had passed, whether by divine retribution or some other consequence, my flesh and soul became permanently tethered to this ark, reducing me to a sort of bound spirit."
"......"
"That is the true story of Noah's Ark. What do you think?"
I found myself entirely unable to speak.