The Great Vessel

"Hello. It's a pleasure to meet you, junior. Shall I introduce myself properly?"

The Heavenly Demon looked at me with a smile that radiated pure delight.

"I am the Heavenly Demon. The tenth to bear that name, and the first Cult Leader who founded Heukshin-mu. And this very body of mine is Heukcheon."

She wore the delighted grin of someone who had just unveiled a tremendous secret.

"Heukcheon, you say?"

"Mm, I know it comes rather abruptly. Shall I put it in a way that's easier to grasp? Think of Heukcheon as having been created by carving a portion out of my personality. She is a sword spirit, after all."

"Then you and Heukcheon are practically one and the same?"

"That's right. I peeled away part of my personality and part of my power."

I stared at the Heavenly Demon. She gazed back at me, a meaningful smile playing on her lips.

So a mere fragment of her power descending was enough to annihilate the Wicheon Brigade.

The Heavenly Demon's strength was truly beyond all measure — so far beyond that I could only call her the very summit I was meant to reach in the future.

Come to think of it, I wonder — would the Heavenly Demon feel it too, if someone touched her sword body?

The idle thought crossed my mind, but I asked what mattered first.

"Where is this place?"

"A place where I bent the laws by force because I wished to see my junior. You may as well call it a kind of mental landscape."

The Heavenly Demon answered with a soft, beaming smile.

"Still, I did a fine job with the twisting, didn't I? Who knew my junior would be this handsome? It's been an age since I had such a feast for the eyes. I very nearly fell for a man, you know."

"Spare me that. What happens to me now?"

"Kuh. Now that is what I wanted to hear. Yes — this is how a Heavenly Demon's junior ought to be. My worries were for nothing, it seems. I'd feared that a life of persecution would leave you warped in some way or other."

The Heavenly Demon said this as she curled her lips.

"Very well. I shall teach you. The berserk mechanism I left behind was my final contingency. I never wanted my junior to walk the same road I did."

The Heavenly Demon extended a slender hand. Over her jade-white fingers, Reverse Heaven came flooding in.

The pitch-black, malevolent power gathered itself into a single sphere.

"To speak honestly, the Black Cauldron was a failure. I did found Heukshin-mu, but the Black Cauldron was a 'vessel' I built because I wished to trample the world underfoot."

The Heavenly Demon spoke with perfect calm.

"Back then, revenge had me fairly blinded. Vermin ought to know their place, yet ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠there were those who dared to strut. Well — this body's face played its part in that too, I'll admit. Ah, but I've wandered off the point. The Black Cauldron was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a small vessel, made for swift attainment. And what I intend to give you is the Great Vessel."

"So that's how it is."

I narrowed my eyes and looked down at my heart.

I really think I can pull this off.

I focused my spiritual power and dragged Reverse Heaven out.

"Junior, forgive me, but this is a vessel I fashioned upon reaching the transcendent realm. However great a genius you may be, this is not something you can hope to copy—"

The Heavenly Demon went on saying something, but none of it reached me.

My focus rose to a crescendo, and I laid my hand over my heart.

A great vessel, she said.

The Black Cauldron had been a vessel of considerable breadth. It had shattered, yes — but my heightened concept stats had seized the wreckage by force and held it together.

Should I break it?

I would break it. I moved the instant the thought formed, and smashed the Black Cauldron apart once more.

A brief blank yawned open. And into the space where my heart had been, I began building what the Heavenly Demon had shown me.

A sphere. What I imagined was a vessel — vast and unbreakable. A vessel that could not be broken even if one wished to break it.

Vwoooooom!

Spiritual power swept through everything around me. The newly forged heart began devouring Reverse Heaven like a starving beast, drinking in all it touched.

"Unbelievable. A mere mid-tier handles Reverse Heaven better than I do?"

The Heavenly Demon muttered something in hollow disbelief. I kept my attention fixed on the heart. The vessel was nearly finished.

The heart the Heavenly Demon had shown me was broader and sturdier than anything I had imagined. And yet that was where it ended. Reverse Heaven was mighty in its own right — her heart seemed to say as much, as though declaring it needed no special artistry.

Is she testing me?

The Heukshin-mu the Heavenly Demon had left ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠behind was refined beyond compare. Using the energy of Reverse Heaven, it threaded the power through every inch of the body with exquisite precision, kneading and tempering the flesh until it could break past its own limits.

Even a Fist Master who forges the body more brutally than anyone alive would lose to mine by an overwhelming margin, were we of the same rank.

And what of the Star God Eye? An eye that divided the world into the colors of mana, all but banishing any fear of ambush. An eye that could read the flow itself — what spell an opponent would weave, what attack they would unleash.

But nothing at all could be read from the Heavenly Demon's expression.

I closed my eyes and set to work on the heart.

Breadth alone is not enough. Something was missing. I wanted to fill the vessel with contents.

Then all I had to do was add them.

I added the Flame of Immolation (S-).

Fwaaaarak!

The concept of burning was inscribed upon the heart. As though it would reduce the world itself to ash, explosive power etched itself deep into the vessel.

On top of that, I added the Seed of the Origin.

Fwoosh!

The heart widened. The seed born of the Origin was engraved into it. A vessel vast and unbreakable and ablaze now cradled the Origin within it.

And to this...

The final power I wished to inscribe was the Knot of Absorption — the blossom of my concept stat, Reverse Heaven. But my Reverse Heaven fell short. I turned to the Heavenly Demon.

"...I've ended up with a truly outrageous junior. Well then. Is there something you'd like to ask of me?"

There it was — the heart in the Heavenly Demon's hand, brimming with an immense reservoir of Reverse Heaven. It was meant to be mine regardless, so what harm could there be in seizing it first?

"Hand it over."

"Huh?"

I began to dominate the Reverse Heaven hovering above the Heavenly Demon's palm.

"Junior? I say, junior? Hey — you wretched little rascal!"

Perhaps because she was the Heavenly Demon, wrenching the power away proved rather difficult. Difficult — but not impossible. I stole the Reverse Heaven and used it to reinforce my vessel.

And then, as the crowning stroke, the Knot of Absorption.

GUOOOOOO!

An immense force of will came sweeping across my surroundings. Into the atmosphere I wove the concepts of the Origin and of flame, and with them a knot that would absorb all things.

And then, on top of it all—

I poured in the special stat: Faith.

Some time ago, I had been made to choose between the Divinity of Flame and Gold and the Divinity of Alchemy. Reverse Heaven, my mainstay, could never have been one of them.

But what if I turned Reverse Heaven itself into divinity?

My divine name might turn out to be something quite interesting indeed.

Gold shimmered and coiled around my heart. The vessel of Reverse Heaven held much within it — flame and the Origin, and the Knot of Absorption born of them. And now, divinity on top of everything.

I could feel the power of belief. Reverse Heaven and Faith met—

KRRZZT—CRAK!

And the two recoiled from each other with a tremendous backlash.

A bitter smile crossed my face. This simply would not work. To put it more precisely — it could be forced, but the power that emerged would be of an entirely different nature.

I looked at the Heavenly Demon. A single divinity creates only a single god. Which meant that the Heavenly Demon had already claimed the divinity of Reverse Heaven for herself. Smiling bitterly inside, I completed the vessel.

I slowly opened my eyes.

"...So you finally deign to look at me."

"Did you take a divinity into yourself?"

"You truly have no charm, junior. But you're handsome enough that I'll forgive you. To answer your question — no."

"You didn't take one either?"

"Right. That power is not one that turns into divinity. Even were it possible, it would take on a nature wholly different from Reverse Heaven."

"..."

"Junior, I am sorry, but give up on making Reverse Heaven into a divinity. That is not within our jurisdiction."

"What do you mean by that?"

The Heavenly Demon raised a single finger.

"A being beyond the farthest horizon is the master of that power. Not the birth of this world — the one who brought forth the birth of the universe itself and established the laws of existence. Even the outer beings dare not brush against That One's nerves. It is that being who presides over Reverse Heaven."

"...The Creator God?"

Wasn't this scale getting a touch out of hand?

"Yes. And That One holds two powers."

"And the other?"

"Junior. Don't tell me you intend to go looking for the other one? I searched for it myself, out of curiosity, but it cannot be found."

"Why not?"

"Because of the law the Great One laid down. For reasons unknown, those who bear the two powers can never be born within the same dimension."

"..."

"But this Heavenly Demon shall make a special exception, just for you. There is no small amount of debate regarding that power, you see. In some worlds it is called the Power of the End, and in others, the Light of Ruin."

The Heavenly Demon's next words left me staring, dumbfounded.

"And in yet other worlds, it is called the Mana of Affirmation."

That was—

Seo Gayeon.

When my face twisted with shock for an instant, the Heavenly Demon tilted her head, puzzled briefly, then continued evenly.

"Well then, junior. It's about time you prepared yourself to leave."

"But the vessel I forged here — what becomes of it, out there?"

"Worry not. It will carry over into reality exactly as you made it."

"Is that so."

"It is."

"Then what happens to Heukcheon?"

The Heavenly Demon's eyes curled with sly delight.

"My, you've grown fond of her, haven't you? Asking after the life of a mere sword spirit. That's hardly ordinary of you."

"Heukcheon is not a mere sword spirit."

"I like you all the more now. Worry not — Heukcheon will remain, just as she is. Truth be told, even this much was quite the strain on me. You made use of Heukcheon, and then the berserk mechanism on top of it. Junior — the body is not a thing to be spent so carelessly."

"...I had no choice."

"I see."

The Heavenly Demon gazed at me with a smile touched ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠by something distant and nostalgic.

"By the way, junior. There is a wish I have. May I ask one thing of you?"

"And what would that be?"

I looked at the Heavenly Demon. I had treated her quite roughly, so I resolved to grant whatever favor she asked, so long as it was within reason.

"Could you bring yourself to call me Unnie?"

It was bullshit.

"Well then, I'll be going."

"Waaaaiiit, juniOOOOR!"

I thought, with every fiber of my being, that I wanted out of this place.

And with the sensation of my consciousness surging upward, I returned to reality.