Inside the Seed
Stepping inside the seed, what greeted me was a space of pitch-black darkness.
Above and below, everything was black. The only thing that existed was a floor I could walk on, as if a pane of transparent glass had been laid down. For some reason, visibility was perfectly clear, allowing me to observe the interior.
-So this is the inside of the Apostle...
-How wretched. Merely standing in this place sickens the spirit.
Heukcheon said, wrinkling her brow.
I felt the same. Nodding, I walked deeper inside.
Tap, tap.
I strode forward without hesitation. I couldn't explain it, but my instincts were telling me this was the way.
I drew out Heukcheon, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
It doesn't seem like it intends to attack.
The seed's behavior was unmistakably strange.
When we'd fought, even as I attacked, the seed had shown nothing but bewilderment. And yet it hadn't attacked me at all. Tucking the Winter Sword into Baekhong, I pressed forward.
Let's pick up the pace.
-Do not rush, my lord. Hurrying in a place like this only invites greater danger.
I'm fine.
It was the ones I'd left outside that worried me.
Kim Ara and Kim Seohyun. Afraid they might try to stop me, I'd entered without saying a word to either of them. They might very well push themselves past their limits to save me the moment I was gone.
Fwiiiish!
Countless tentacles inside the seed were staring at me. There had to be several hundred of them. Yet I sensed no hostility from them.
-It's disgusting...
-Naturally. An Apostle is a creature crafted directly from the outer realms. It is far worse than even most demonic beings—
-No, I meant the way it looks.
-...Ah. So it is.
Click.
A switch flipped inside my mental image, and the Divine Eye of Stars activated.
I observed the interior.
Everything I saw was black—a tainted power. Negative energies that seemed like they didn't belong in this world.
Revolting.
The negative energies had been converging on me for some time now.
It was as if they were trying to corrupt me. If I felt this much pressure, the strain on anyone else would have been crushing.
So that's why most who get devoured by an Apostle emerge corrupted.
What was even more absurd was that the proper ritual hadn't even been completed.
A Seed of Death that had undergone a true ritual would not take this form.
Which is exactly why I came.
Unstable in its descent and still in its nascent state—but I still lacked the power to bring down an Apostle head-on.
For now.
Which meant I had to break it apart from within, disrupt the ritual, and force it back to its original world.
I knew the method. And Yeokcheon was remarkably well suited to wielding that power.
Tsssss.
The essence of death was condensing thickly in the tentacles. Merely touching it would kill any ordinary hero. That was the kind of power it was. The absurd part was that this was its natural state—it held no killing intent toward me.
Fwiiiish!
The tentacles of death began twisting around one another, merging together. They formed a single humanoid figure.
A being made entirely of black. Two eyes and a mouth had attached themselves to it. I had never seen anything like it.
【Heh heh... My sibling...】
A droning voice bored straight into my brain.
-It feels as though my very spirit is being sapped just by hearing its language.
Kim Seohyun's inner thoughts from Epic World came to mind. It wasn't quite as bad as she'd described.
Fortunately, Yeokcheon seemed to be blocking it.
Sibling, is it?
That was what it had called me.
Which meant it had something to do with the Yeokcheon Body I possessed.
Come to think of it, Yeokcheon really is a bundle of mysteries.
Starlight Mana was the same.
For reasons unknown, Starlight Mana possessed a power perfectly suited to erasing enemies from the outer realms. Not merely a decent affinity matchup—it was something beyond a natural predator.
"Sibling?"
【As I thought... you have yet to bloom... No matter... Soon enough, you too will... come to realize what you are...】
I narrowed my eyes.
Bloom my power further? Was there truly a path beyond Yeokcheon?
And going further would be its own problem.
The end of Yeokcheon might mean becoming one of those things.
"Why did you descend to this place?"
【Amusement.】
It savored the word like a pleasure on its tongue.
【Those who follow my god... offered up a sacrifice... Their screams and despair... bring my god such joy...】
The creature's eyes curved into crescents.
The emotion within them was a sludge of delight and rapture—filthy, negative feelings through and through.
"I see."
I raised Heukcheon. As expected, these things were not worth talking to.
Their goal was the destruction of this world. Toying with humans like livestock while indulging in their own private pleasures.
【Do not squirm about... like a human... sibling.】
"Don't call me sibling. It's annoying."
Ziiiing—!
Heukcheon spat out her sword cry. The Black Flame Radiant Divinity poured black flames into her blade.
A pity.
I still couldn't use sword qi. My mental image wasn't complete yet.
【Then for a while... I shall confine you.】
"Go ahead and try."
Fwiiiish!
Several hundred tentacles aimed themselves at me with open hostility.
Clang! The moment a tentacle met Heukcheon, black flames consumed it. But through the gap, dozens more tentacles came for me. Individually weak, but far too numerous.
Time to thin them out.
Black Wings, activated.
Bladed wings erupted from my shoulder blades. Black wings wreathed in flame and primordial force spread like a blooming lotus, carving through the tentacles.
Conceptual Stat Yeokcheon has increased by 1.
Conceptual Stat Yeokcheon has increased by 1.
My Yeokcheon had risen just from cutting down tentacles. Perhaps it was because, unlike before, they now carried killing intent.
【As expected... you are troublesome.】
The creature muttered something.
I kicked off the ground, leaping toward the center as fast as I could.
Clank.
I intercepted tentacles with my black wings. The ones too numerous to block I handled by drawing the Winter Sword from Baekhong. Anything I couldn't stop in time, I shrugged off roughly with my armor.
Proficiency in the talent Sword Demon (S) has increased.
Crrrrunch!
The Winter Sword began freezing everything around it. By now I could raise its efficiency through raw strength alone.
At the center, I drove Heukcheon into the ground.
Heukshinmu, the Fifth Secret Art.
Mujeogageung—the Bottomless Abyss.
Hwaryeok—Fiery Blaze.
A single pillar of black flame bloomed upward.
It soon began to spiral, accelerating at a monstrous rate. Before I knew it, the pillar of black flame had multiplied into dozens, transforming my surroundings into a vortex of black fire.
More.
I accelerated. Mujeogageung was, by its very nature, an abyss that could not even control itself. But my Yeokcheon had grown so much that it was still easy to hold in check.
I felt the black flame slipping past my control. Devouring everything around it as it swelled, Mujeogageung swallowed half the seed in the blink of an eye.
【Ahh... as I thought. You truly... are my sibling...】
With those words, the seed stirred.
The essence of death began condensing at the tips of its hundreds of tentacles. A strike so dangerous that even I would die instantly if it landed clean.
The seed hurled it straight into the abyss of Mujeogageung.
The abyss twisted violently. And that was all. The all-devouring abyss absorbed even the essence of death and continued to swell.
【As expected... it devours all things... but your mastery is still crude...】
As it spat those words, the seed gathered the essence of death into its grasp.
A power on an entirely different level from everything before began condensing there.
I frowned. I knew exactly what the seed was attempting.
Recall.
I pulled back every last wisp of the Mujeogageung that had broken free of my control. Not a single shred was lost in the process—thanks to the Knot of Absorption.
This is tricky.
The manifestation of an authority wielded at the Apostle tier.
Had that authority fully manifested, Mujeogageung would have died without even the chance to be recalled. But after all that chaos, I could finally find what I was looking for.
...Found it.
On the far side of the space, I spotted a single murky seed.
The core.
An Apostle appearing at this point in time was, no matter how I looked at it, an impossibility. Which meant something had been sacrificed—some condition fulfilled—just barely to grant it this descent.
Shatter that, and the Apostle would have no choice but to return.
Just as I raised Heukcheon to attack again, I furrowed my brow.
Fwoooosh!
A beam of light burst forth. I had seen a phenomenon like this once before.
...I hoped she wouldn't come.
Before entering this place,
Kim Seohyun and I had obtained a certain artifact.
: Once per day, allows entry into the interior of any existence caught within your sight.
The power of an artifact can only be countered by another artifact. That was the truth of this world.
Not that it's an absolute rule.
There were ways to block it. An authority or mystic of comparable standing, and little else. I looked at the Apostle. It must have been only because this Apostle was still incomplete that I'd been able to slip inside so easily.
The beam of light faded, revealing a girl with sky-blue hair.
"I told you not to come."
"But isn't it a good thing I did?"
Kim Seohyun glanced around and made her way toward me.
Frankly, her presence was a massive relief. She was capable of fighting in every position—vanguard, rear guard, middle guard, all of it.
Yeongcheon.
-Yes, my lord.
From now on, spam every spell you have. I'll supply you with Yeokcheon.
My original plan had been to work the ball slowly, biding my time before striking. But the plan had to change.
"Seohyun."
"Yeah?"
"In here, you don't need to hide anything. Cut loose as much as you want."
"...You knew?"
Kim Seohyun said, looking flustered.
Well, of course I knew. Though I hadn't known she was a woman.
Thirty-four sessions. A hundred and seventy-four hours, wasn't it?
That was roughly how much time I had invested in Kim Seohyun.
【Futile struggle... This world's destruction... was long since destined... sibling.】
"Get lost. There's no ending like that."
At the seed's words, I sneered and raised my middle finger.
"Earth will not be destroyed—and you'll be thrown back into the outer realms where you belong."
That was the future I would build.