Crazy Bitch...

Crazy bitch...

"Alright... let's have a serious conversation now, shall we?"

─......

"What is there to hesitate about? Simply speak as you did to me."

─Madmen. All of you.

A new presence had taken its place beside the table where Cheonma and I sat, standing shoulder to shoulder with us.

The master of the mountain, arms crossed, eyes open in unmistakable displeasure. With legs that dissolved into wisps of smoke, the figure looked for all the world like a ghost — but according to the master itself, it possessed no true form at all. This shape, too, had been conjured purely for the sake of dealing with Cheonma.

─You make me like this, and now you say that?

"It was self-defense. You'd agree, right?"

I had Cheonma's permission, and with the end of the world bearing down on us, I had only held him for a brief moment to talk. But the master of the mountain had thrashed about as if to kill me — because the energy lurking inside my body had tried to destroy my flesh. I subdued it with my divinity, and that was all...

"That is so. Lily speaks the truth."

─Did you not strike me with a hammer!

"I gave you a light tap, that's all. It couldn't have even hurt."

Since I'd swatted him while in my fourth-stage state, he hadn't taken any real damage. I'd never intended to attack in the first place, so I had deliberately held my strength in check.

Cheonma gave a dry laugh.

"Why do you play so hard to get, Heukryeon? Just as you once acknowledged me, Lily too has earned the right to be acknowledged."

─Acknowledgment does not come so easily... And—!

KRAKOOM!

The master of the mountain's thick hand slammed down onto the table.

Though no sound rang out, for he had no true form.

─How many times must I tell you — my name is NOT Heukryeon!

"But you have no name of your own, do you? I merely bestowed upon you one that befits you."

─Befits. It does not.

"A mountain where black lotuses bloom in full — Heukryeon, master of Black Lotus Mountain."

"Where in this world could one find a more fitting name?" Cheonma chuckled low as she said it, and Heukryeon, unable to win in the end, let out a long sigh.

It does fit, though.

"It suits you, though."

─...Fine. You— you will do. Arguing with you is nothing but exhausting. You want information on the Calamity, yes?

"Yes."

─Why? Do you have a reason to stand against the Calamity?

The reason I had to stop the Calamity.

─Cheonma chose this path to drive out the Calamity and claim power and standing for herself. But you are not her.

I'd never received a quest commanding me to stop the Calamity, nor had anyone promised me some enormous reward. The closest thing was one of my class-advancement quests, which asked me to slay an extreme-tier world boss...

Hmm.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

But really — even without a quest like that, would I not have tried to stop the Kraken anyway? When you got right down to it, I kept throwing myself wholeheartedly into affairs whose benefits to me were dubious at best.

─Then what do you fight for?

"...Because it's fun?"

─What?

"I'd like this place to keep standing. Now, and long into the future, too."

It had already collapsed once before. Letting it fall a second time simply wouldn't be right — not for the world, and not for me.

"Besides, if it all comes crashing down and everyone dies, I won't get to have this fun anymore. What choice do I have? I'll stop it come hell or high water."

─......

The suspicion in Heukryeon's eyes eased, if only a little.

─...Very well. I shall tell you.

Siii...

Smoke began to spread from Heukryeon's thick hand. The dark haze wove a phantom sea out of empty air, and from beyond its surface drifted the ominous blare of a ship's horn.

CHAAAASH!

The sea heaved, and something colossal surged up above the waves. Six violet lights burned against the black of the night sea.

Vmmmm...!

Merely looking at those lights was enough to make the bracelet react.

─As you can see, to slay the Calamity of the Sea, the 'Portals of Calamity' he carries must be sealed. The bracelets capable of that sealing are held by you and the Vice-Cult Leader.

"What about the rest? It seems like one bracelet per portal."

─A place that touches the very sky.

The highest point a mortal lifeform could hope to reach. There, so long as certain special conditions were met, a bracelet could be obtained.

─Only Outworlders can wear the bracelets. And so only Outworlders may ever claim them.

"So their whereabouts are unknown? I doubt Cheonma simply stumbled across me by chance."

Cheonma had definitely come looking for me knowing full well that I carried a bracelet. And yet she had devoted herself wholly to secluded training, and had only recently begun her activities. Obtaining this bracelet hadn't involved anything particularly remarkable, and she didn't watch broadcasts — so she couldn't have found me through my streams or their replays, either. There had to have been some means. Something that could reveal the owner of a bracelet.

"That, I can explain."

"Cheonma?"

"When I completed my closed-door cultivation and earned Heukryeon's acknowledgment, I received a quest."

The fruit of years of effort — more than a dozen hours of training every single day. Cheonma, who had once been a name and nothing more, had laid the foundation to become a true Heavenly Demon, and with it came a single task set to test her:

To subdue the coming Calamity and claim a 'share' of its defeat.

"I was required to choose one of the three Calamities and acquire a set share of its subjugation. The shares stood at three percent, thirteen, and sixty-six. I chose the three percent — and for it, I received the information and this bracelet."

"The hardest one of all?"

"Indeed."

"Why?"

Going ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠by the proportions, the sixty-six percent had to be Scorpio. The thirteen belonged to the demonkin the Empire was holding captive. And the final three percent would be the Kraken. No matter how large the share being demanded, the latter two were beings that ordinary users couldn't so much as oppose. Just look at what happened with Sgaredo — rankers of the highest caliber, Leo and Yena and Vlack among them, had died dozens of times over just to scrape together barely three percent. And even that much had only been achievable because I'd shown a certain degree of consideration. The Kraken, moreover, was stronger than Sgaredo by an order of magnitude.

"Why would you deliberately choose the harder road?"

"The reason is simple. Judged by numbers alone, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thirteen percent was out of the question."

"That much I understand."

The Empire holding the demonkin captive wasn't yet public knowledge, but the vast majority of users already knew that the demonkin would appear as world bosses — the Siege Warfare had shown them that much. Under those circumstances, carving out a full thirteen percent of the share would have required a devastating blow, one far beyond Cheonma's reach. She was strong in her own right, certainly, but not strong enough to wound the demonkin at their core.

What I couldn't understand was why she hadn't chosen Scorpio. Sixty-six percent might look enormous, but measured against clawing shares out of the demonkin and the Kraken, it was a vastly easier task. In terms of raw power and ability, Scorpio sat far below Sgaredo, who had become a high-tier world boss. And now that everyone had grown stronger, Cheonma could have built a faction of her own, monopolized a slice of the share, and cleared the quest that way. If Heukryeon had furnished information on the Kraken, he would surely have furnished equivalent information for Scorpio as well.

"Next comes the sixty-six percent... and honestly, even I believe that would have been the right choice. Facing the weak is a far easier thing than facing a strong one of monstrous caliber."

"Then why—"

"Because I am the Heavenly Demon."

Cheonma was, by her very nature, one who shattered the heavens and leapt beyond them. Scorpio's sky, measured against the Kraken's, was nothing more than an earthworm wriggling in the dirt. Having become the Heavenly Demon, she could not bring herself to call so pitiful a thing a heaven.

And above all else...

"If one must fight at all, then one ought to fight the strongest of them all — is that not so?"

"In any case, according to the information I have gathered, all but one of them — 'five' in total — are currently distributed among individual users. Of those five, you seemed the most likely to listen to reason, and so I sought you out first."

"You don't know where the last one is?"

"There is no way to know until an owner is chosen. These bracelets belonged, after all, to the masters of the mountains. Until they choose an owner, they are nothing more than ornaments."

"...Aha?"

Which would mean that this bracelet I'd obtained...

"So I have this one because Blue-Ring chose me. It wasn't just dumb luck after all."

"That would be one way to see it."

Now that I thought about it, something had been off back then. The reward options presented to me at the time had been nothing but wall-to-wall Mythic-grade and Legendary items. And yet, in the middle of all that, a random box had appeared — the kind where even pulling a single Legendary was a long shot? A random box sitting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a full two tiers below the top, no less? I hadn't understood DeoEn's systems or its items well back then, and I'd chosen it on a whim, for fun. But now I felt certain I knew the truth.

I had subdued the ones gnawing away at Blue-Ring's body and locked the Shadow Spirit away inside it. Blue-Ring had been unable to speak, but it must have wanted, in some fashion, to repay the one who had solved its problem. Granting me a 'quest to stop the Calamity' outright was beyond what it could offer — so passing the gift along by this roundabout route had been the best it could manage.

Any ordinary person would have been blinded by the gleam of Mythic-grade gear and snatched that up without a second thought...

But I was no ordinary person.