Don't Run Away, Let's Talk

The item was called the Smooth Bracelet.

A Rare-grade accessory that did absolutely nothing when worn — the kind of item people casually called cosmetic junk. It even carried a 'Soulbound' enchantment, making it impossible to sell or hand off to anyone else. In other words, an item of truly, magnificently useless design.

I had obtained it in a place called the Blue Forest Plateau, which I'd explored together with Yena. The forest grew atop a world-boss-class entity known as Blue-Ring, and we cleared the dungeon by capturing the Shadow Spirit and sealing it inside. The System, recognizing that I had achieved something far beyond its preset limits, offered me a choice of rewards — and after some deliberation, I picked the Very Mysterious Random Box, which spat out this bracelet.

Honestly, the reason I chose the random box back then was a little... light-hearted.

It didn't seem as serious as it does now.

I learned that the plateau was connected to Doen through Karabus's hammer in the Crab Empire, but I was never certain it was truly Doen's past. Back then, it was unclear whether so much as a single angel or demon survived — let alone an empire. So in that situation, I'd rolled the box for the sake of a more entertaining stream, and this is what came out of it.

And yet — who knew it would turn out to be such an important item?

"Oh. This is it?"

"Indeed. The Bracelet of Sealing — the lock of which only six exist in all the world."

"Is that so?"

"That's right. I predicted all of it."

Everything had gone according to plan. There was a perfectly good reason I'd tossed aside a Mythic and comparable rewards to choose what seemed like nothing but garbage.

...Not. Absolutely not.

"So how did you come to own one, Cheonma? And how did you know it could be used for sealing?"

"The calamity that approaches is the Disaster of the Sea. His power is vast and terrible, and thus must he be pressed down by a force that stands opposed to his own."

"A force opposed to the sea... the heavens?"

Ordinarily, one would think of earth or fire as the natural counter to the sea — but the sea of the Kraken was a different beast entirely. It was a singular domain of authority, a dominion all its own. Powers capable of standing against such a domain were few and far between in this world.

Clink.

"The ground upon which we stand is the place where living beings may draw closest to the heavens."

The plateau.

"On the day I completed the Heavenly Demon Descent Step, the Master of Black Lotus Mountain prophesied the coming calamity."

"Thus was I, the Honored One, entrusted with a great task — nothing less than the slaying of the heavens."

"She called you a madwoman, though?"

"The Master of the Mountain speaks crudely, but she is deeply bashful. She shelters this one's dwelling within her body, so such results are only natural."

Cheonma wore an expression of perfect composure.

Somehow I doubted the mountain's master saw it that way.

"And what about you, Young Sect Leader?"

"A mere title, nothing more. When I drive out the calamity, I shall ascend to the true seat of the Heavenly Demon."

"So you're saying you're not one yet?"

"It is but a seat where one claims the name of the Honored One. To be other than a Heavenly Demon is—"

"Your job class just isn't Heavenly Demon, right? Correct?"

"......That is true, and yet this one IS a Heavenly Demon."

HeavenlyDemonAdvocate... no, forgive me — Cheonma, Young Sect Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

With a distinctly disgruntled look, Cheonma floated her jade teapot into the air and poured another cup of black ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tea. Her cup, already drained, filled once more to the brim with bitterness.

"...You truly delight in tormenting people, do you not?"

"Come on, no. Everyone loves it."

"Died of love, did they."

Well, I'd have revived them even if they had.

Glug! With that, Cheonma tipped back the freshly filled cup and downed it in a single swallow.

"?"

Setting aside how hot it was, this was a complete one-eighty from the delicate little sips she'd been taking just moments before. That wasn't how she drank it at all.

"Isn't it hot?"

"My eyes are simply faster than the heat."

"?"

Utterly untroubled by the scalding tea, she quietly closed her eyes and lowered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠both hands to rest upon her knees. The black tea that had entered her body slowly exhaled its energies, aiding the circulation of her Heavenly Demon Qi.

Whooom! In an instant, the qi gathered around her, and her accumulated inner energy began to circulate around her dantian.

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠don't know much about wuxia, but even I could recognize this one.

"Breathing exercise? Un-gi-jo-sik?"

Behind her, quietly gathering her inner force, a dark figure began to rise.

Something enormous. It was comparable to a mid-tier world boss, and its form bore an uncanny resemblance to the 'Blue-Ring' I had seen on the Blue Forest Plateau.

Crackle.

"...!"

The summoning had failed. In the backlash, Cheonma's doll-like body wavered for a moment, but she calmly wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and treated her internal injury as if nothing had happened.

"...You are unusually rough today. This was not how it once was."

"Were you trying to summon the Master of the Mountain?"

"Indeed. If I could show you the Master directly, our discussion would grow far simpler."

Cheonma, pouting, refilled her cup once more. She drank another cup, then resumed her breathing exercise.

Crack-hiss!

Failed again.

"...Think you I cannot, because of that?"

She drank another cup.

Failed again, and again.

One more cup, then...

"Kgh—!"

Cheonma vomited up a surge of blood. It was enough blood that any ordinary person would hardly be blamed for dying on the spot — but to Cheonma, who had ascended to her realm, it was nothing.

"Hoo..."

"Shall I treat it for you?"

"...It is done. An injury of this degree recovers in moments."

"It doesn't normally come out this hard, does it?"

"Ordinarily, one cup — two at the very most — suffices. Yet today, even four cups down, she does not emerge."

Refused this many times, most people would have broken. Cheonma, however, seemed instead to burn with fighting spirit: she produced a fresh jade teapot and filled her cup once more.

"Then let us see this through to the very end. What this body has in abundance is time."

"Shall I try?"

"You?"

Before pouring the tea, Cheonma held the cup and pot suspended in midair and turned her gaze upon me.

"She is not a being one could call a mere drink of tea."

"I've roughly figured out how it works. You spread your energy through your whole body and summon the target into your shadow — isn't that it?"

"Easy for you to say—"

Whooom! I flooded my body with red-tinted mana, its color transformed. The scarlet mana coursed through every corner of my frame and wove itself into a single shape — and behind me, a crimson Blue-Ring rose from the shadows.

More precisely, an apparition shaped in Blue-Ring's image. It was red, so I supposed I ought to call it Red-Ring.

Cheonma's eyes went wide.

"...Magnificent. To reproduce so effortlessly what you have seen but once."

"This much is easy."

It was merely an application of Manifestation, one of the fundamental manipulations of mana. Honestly, for all it was called a breathing exercise, it was hardly different from the mana circulation a mage performs. The only real difference was where the energy was stored, perhaps?

Granted, my mana manipulation itself was among the top three of any player — but this was no high-order technique.

With an awkward laugh, Cheonma refilled my half-finished cup to the brim.

"The Master of the Mountain is wise, but deeply wary. You may well endure something harsher than anything I have faced."

"It's fine. If it hurts, we treat it."

"...Very well. Drink."

Glug.

"Hk — bitter."

I closed my eyes.

Unlike ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the slow little sips, a searing heat now ravaged its way through my body, thrashing about without rhyme or reason — a rampage violent enough that any ordinary body would have come apart on the spot.

Once I had subdued it all, I gathered the energy into one place and set it slowly circulating.

And then I felt a will. Something small, drifting — like a lotus blossom floating on the air.

So this is the Master of the Mountain.

Shhhh...

As I drew the lotus upward, a black shadow rose up behind me.

I didn't turn to look, but I felt it clearly enough.

A dark figure with resentful eyes was glaring down at me. It seemed to take offense at being summoned by someone who had never earned its recognition — and so the shadow pressed its weight down upon my body.

Trickle...

Blood ran down from my mouth.

Ah. So that's how it is.

It's been a while since something attacked me from the 'inside.'

Piercing my body in the first place was all but impossible, and even when something managed it, my divinity erased it without exception. Had I not deliberately sealed my divinity away, that energy would have dissipated long before it ever landed a blow.

BOOM!

I had grabbed the Master of the Mountain just as she tried to vanish into the shadows.

And where exactly did she think she was going?