The Fourth Sea of Slaughter

The Wheel began to spin in reverse.

The cart wheel that had been driving the Slaughter Wheel flipped its direction, and the endlessly swelling mass of slaughter energy started getting sucked back into the Mental World along with the temporary construct of that same Mental World.

She had bloated that slaughter to absurd proportions by nearly burning through every last second of Training Ground time just to forge a Sea of Slaughter, so the process crawled at a glacial pace.

The Chopsticks spun backward with it to speed things along, but even then it was far too slow. To make matters worse, reclaiming the temporary Mental World while reeling in the Slaughter Wheel meant the scarecrows—born and vanishing the instant they appeared in the Training Ground—started piling up and lunging at her.

"Pause!"

She shut down the Training Ground's functions. The scarecrows froze mid-motion, lined up in a neat row, and returned to standby.

But that brief flicker of diverted attention threw a wrench into the process of packing the fourth Sea of Slaughter into the Mental World. She clenched her teeth and forced her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠focus back into place.

The Status Window propping up the Seas of Slaughter held firm, but the Tower—facing the riptides and tidal waves birthed by the forming fourth sea—swayed without rest.

Every lurch sent an ominous creak through her active transformation skill, as if it were about to collapse. The whole thing felt razor-thin.

The new arm that had sprouted from her shoulder joint crumbled away. Of course it did—it had grown from the Tower raised inside the temporary Mental World she'd built in the Training Ground. Naturally it would fall apart.

And naturally, the burden of forcing the Slaughter Wheel into the Mental World spiked hard.

"Gah! For real!"

At this rate she would never finish before the Training Ground timer ran out. She was going to have to gamble. Hee-a's gaze dropped to the two Humanity Clones straining to hold the Golden Core steady at her feet.

She'd been about to burn through their reserves to buy herself some time—then a jab of conscience from within made her look away without thinking.

"Yu I-seong? You?!"

Yu I-seong, who had been locked away deep in her inner world, stepped out holding a spear and locked eyes with her. That look of pure disdain at her flustered state left her stammering at the drastically changed Yu I-seong—until I-seong spoke first, almost tossing the words out.

Then Yu I-seong took position inside the Golden Core, golden spiritual energy scattering from her spear, and began to dance—light, fluttering steps.

Golden spiritual energy spiraled outward from the Golden Core in a roaring vortex.

That golden energy painted an entirely different set of laws across the slaughter-choked Training Ground, imposing them as if it existed in a world apart. She fretted helplessly as it happened.

The two Humanity Clones holding the Golden Core moved first.

The one that absorbed spiritual energy pulled the cascading golden power back into herself.

The one that released spiritual energy spat that drawn-in golden power back out again.

The golden spiritual energy cycled through a Möbius loop centered on the Golden Core and the two Humanity Clones, the light pouring from it growing fiercer and fiercer until the whole space flooded with radiance—an aurora so intense it drowned everything in pure light.

I-seong's voice snapped her back to herself. She tore her eyes from the Golden Core, dropped the transformation, and threw her body clear—

—and in that same instant, an aurora that split the Slaughter Wheel filling the Training Ground sky like a curtain bloomed a fraction too late, shearing off her left arm and gouging out her side as it rose.

The Slaughter Wheel was cut cleanly into four pieces.

Each piece held twice the capacity of the third Sea of Slaughter, but with a division that clean she hurled her severed left arm onto the cart wheel, flooding her Natal Dharma Treasure with essence blood to overload it. The entrance to the Mental World was forced wide open, and she succeeded in packing every last scrap of the Slaughter Wheel inside.

And so the fourth Sea of Slaughter was complete.

The aurora's cut had left cube-like seams running through the Sea of Slaughter, but complete was complete. She immediately sealed the still-open entrance to the Mental World.

The Humanity Clones and the Golden Core had already returned to the Mental World along with the Slaughter Wheel, after all.

Then she scrambled out of the Training Ground in a panic and rolled across the floor.

"That was almost fucking it..."

A red warning window floated up, the seconds dropping with cold indifference as if to say her Training Ground time was almost gone, and a heart-stopping terror seized her.

She didn't even want to think about what would have happened if she'd still been inside after the timer hit zero!

"Ugh. The Sea of Slaughter needs to stabilize, so I can't use it."

There was nowhere to draw slaughter from to regenerate her left arm. The side wound and the bleeding from the severed arm she wiped away with an Epic-grade bandage consumable, but body-part loss needed something better.

"Wonder if a potion'll drop somewhere."

For the record, when she said "potion," she meant a slaughter-stuffed neutral NPC more than any actual monster!

"If it doesn't show on the minimap, I'm out of options. Not like I can head back to base either!"

She had to drop the event rates before going home.

With Togo—already a patient—and Yeona, a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fragile low-level whose life hung by a thread from the aftershocks of an Eok-kka event alone, she couldn't go around triggering accidents at the base. So for now, maybe she'd wander around looking for a potion.

Stabilizing the Sea of Slaughter was urgent, but regenerating the wound and topping off her HP came first. The unstable sea meant she couldn't use skills—but she still had Auto-Battle!

The incomplete Sea of Slaughter was a problem, sure, but the bigger issue was her Natal Dharma Treasure: the Wheel.

Smearing a Dharma Treasure with essence blood to massively amplify its power was a technique that chewed through durability, and even a Natal Dharma Treasure like the Wheel couldn't shrug off an overload severe enough to expand the Mental World's gate. She'd worked it half to death, and now it was completely fried.

More precisely, it was like a cooldown had locked in—she couldn't pull the Wheel out of her head at all. Maybe because it was part of her soul, but when she tried to force it, she could faintly hear something like "No more overtime!"—not as clear as the Humanity Clones, but close enough.

Seriously, they all acted like she was some kind of evil boss! The Humanity Clones were her, and the Natal Dharma Treasure was a piece of her soul!

"No—before that, Yu I-seong! What about the Mythic item options?! And what the hell were those wings?!"

When she checked her inner world, the girl had already bolted back into her room and locked the door. Trying to force it open only got her will bounced off by golden spiritual energy. She was genuinely about to cry from the unfairness of it.

She wanted to cry. The tears just wouldn't come!

She rolled dejectedly across the floor, flopped onto her stomach, and sprawled out limp—until one of the Humanity Clones started poking her conscience from within, calling for her attention.

What. What is it.

And what the Humanity Clone had diligently written out on a sketchbook to show her was none other than the Status Window of that unfilial daughter locked in her room—Yu I-seong.

Why?! How?!

"You guys still have Mortal Status Windows! Does I-seong get special treatment just because she had an enlightenment?!"

"Well, our Status Windows are still fully Mortal too."

The two Humanity Clones who had received cultivation methods for handling spiritual energy from Togo still had plain Mortal Status Windows—no nickname, no class, no race, just a single Mind stat hanging there alone.

"So that angel's race back then was Heavenly Puppeteer? Not an angel or some winged tribe—just a puppet!"

Wait. Did that mean Yu I-seong, unlike the other Humanity Clones, could manifest in reality like a clone—without a slaughter body, and not just inside the Mental ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠World?!

Was that why she was hiding?

"It's not that. Main Body, we're Mortals, but we still handle spiritual energy, right?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"When we handle spiritual energy and you move slaughter at the same time, the spiritual energy and the slaughter collide. It hurts."

"Oh. It does? Ugh—then Yu I-seong too—"

"Slaughter flowing in would hurt her terribly. We only handle it through cultivation methods, but I-seong gained enlightenment, received Heaven's aid, transcended, and now carries spiritual energy directly inside her body."

"So that's why she locked the door and hid."

And here she'd thought the girl was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sulking from hurt feelings, or worse—dark-evolving into a heart demon and plotting to stab her in the back!

Relief loosened something in her chest. She let out a quiet sigh, shifted maps, and was about to slowly make her way toward a nearby neutral NPC when she suddenly stopped cold.

"No, wait—so what was the Mythic item?!"

....We don't know either!

"We don't know, do we?"

Maybe it was the cultivation methods, but the Humanity Clone's voice sank into her ears with unnatural clarity. Yu Hee's head started throbbing with fresh curiosity as she set off at random toward the gray dot on her minimap.