Chapter 228
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 228
After listening to the story, Ju-hyeon spoke with a peculiar expression.
“…Wouldn’t it help if you softened your tone a bit?”
“This is just how I speak. What do you want me to do about it?”
“That’s what I’m saying. You should try to… do something about it.”
This was exactly why Ju-hyeon was always saying things like:
“You damn divinities really need to take some speech classes.”
“I consider myself quite an eloquent speaker.”
“You know that’s not the problem. Whenever you speak, Mr. Gio, there’s always something vague and ominous about it. Regardless of whether your intentions are good or bad, it just feels… unsettling.”
“Hmm. What about when I’m Giovanni?”
“It’s a little better when you’re Giovanni, but even then, it’s not exactly normal. All three Gios speak with this massive sense of distance.”
As Seo Gio, he sounded like an ominous evil spirit clumsily imitating a human. As Giovanni, he felt like a divine being of a fundamentally different caliber. And as for Arjio, he was on a whole other level.
“Why is there no need to speak of him?”
“I was holding back because I figured you’d just pretend to be hurt if I told you.”
Arjio truly felt like an Evil God.
I flinched pretty hard when I first met him, too.
It was a completely different kind of dread from the eerie silence that surrounded Seo Gio. Arjio’s sweet voice, which seemed to seep directly into one’s ears and brain, was indistinguishable from a devil’s whisper. And those golden eyes reflecting his image were those of a predator locking onto its prey, making Ju-hyeon instinctively shrink back.
The textbook definition of an Evil God who pursues nothing but his own selfish amusement…
He could fully sympathize with the animal families on the other side of the frame.
“If you just spoke like you are right now, you’d at least make some progress. You talk so much like an Evil God that they can’t easily shake off their fear. Please, just do something about your tone.”
“It’s not ‘like’ an Evil God. I am an Evil God.”
Besides, it wasn’t something he could control.
“Even for me, this is beyond my control.”
“I don’t get it. Why?”
“I get filtered. I suppose ‘filtering’ is the best way to describe it.”
“……?”
Filtering?
“What kind of… filtering? Are you saying your speech and actions are being forcibly corrected, Mr. Gio? And that’s why you have no choice but to speak like that in front of those poor animal friends?”
“Precisely.”
“But why?”
“It’s the same reason the ‘Black Cloak’ encountered through the frames is so exceptionally blunt and ominous. It took me quite some time to even perceive the discrepancy myself.”
This was a fact he had realized back when he encountered the Collector’s employees.
“Perhaps because I am a portrait, unless I go through some form of mediation, issues arise in my aura, my tone, and so on. It’s the same no matter which Gio steps forward.”
When channeled through ‘Gio’s Portrait’—the frame that served as his primary gateway—his tone and aura were significantly softened, to say nothing of his so-called ‘status.’
Even with that mediation, there were still plenty of aspects that felt straight out of a ghost story, but it was far better than nothing.
“But if I travel directly from this cabin, or if I greet them while remaining inside a frame, it’s a different story. I become a much more stereotypical, cookie-cutter ‘Gio.’ And the worst part is, I can’t even perceive the dissonance myself.”
“So that’s what you meant by filtering…”
It was absurd.
“Why on earth does that happen?”
“Because I’m a portrait, perhaps?”
“Can’t you do anything about it?”
“It doesn’t seem like it would be easy.”
“Good grief.”
Ju-hyeon felt a pang of pity for Gio.
It’s even more tragic because it really does seem tied to his identity as a portrait.
After all, what was a portrait? It was fundamentally a painting meant to capture someone’s most idealized form.
In other words, Ju-hyeon suspected that because the Gios had been preserved—frozen in time based on a specific moment or perception—they were being subjected to this forced ‘filtering.’
“……”
At the same time, he found himself in a dilemma.
“Then this is going to be really difficult.”
“It seems that way.”
“Well… have you considered just becoming a merciful monarch instead?”
“An Evil God? Merciful?”
“I just don’t think you can ever be a casual friend to them, Mr. Gio. You might want an equal relationship, but even if their fear eventually fades, their awe will remain.”
“I’ll leave that as a pleasure to look forward to in the future.”
Having been called out by his friends for his impatience, Gio had reflected on it and decided to take things slow.
It was only Ju-hyeon and Yoo Seong-un—who were prone to overthinking—who felt pressured to define their relationships and existence. Gio had no intention of forcing such concepts onto his animal friends.
As long as it was entertaining, that was all that mattered. For himself, and for those around him.
“Can’t someone be a subject and a friend, or a friend and family, all at once?”
“You really are greedier than you let on, Mr. Gio.”
“If you can have it, it’s only natural to take it.”
This was especially true for Arjio.
“……”
“You look like you have something to say.”
“That’s just dopamine addiction.”
“Hush, now.”
How dare he degrade a sacred social endeavor to mere chemical secretions.
*
Once, there were those who were called heroes.
Every beast in the world had turned into a monster, attacking humanity on all fronts. Humans were left to live in hunger and chaos, groaning under an epidemic that ate away at their flesh and souls as they desperately pleaded with the strongest among them.
“Please, slay that cruel beast.”
“Oh, heroes sent by the gods…”
“Please, we beg of you. End this war.”
Countless sacrifices were made.
Though they bore the grand title of “heroes,” they were ultimately just humans. They screamed in agony and suffered nightmares of terror. It was not even uncommon for conflicts to break out among them, leading them to slaughter one another.
Above all, they eventually learned the truth.
“…Is this real?”
“Th-this must be a trick by the Demon King to deceive us! Don’t fall for it!”
“But… you know as well as I do that this isn’t a fabrication.”
The wicked divinity they had deemed an Evil God was, in truth, a monster born from human ignorance and selfishness. Humanity had brought this all upon themselves. Because they had burned down the forest—never realizing the Saint was a Saint, nor recognizing their final chance for what it was—this entire catastrophe had begun.
“What do we do…?”
“…I—I can’t do this. This is wrong.”
The heroes fell into despair and confusion.
“If this is the truth, then what makes us heroes?”
They were, at their core, decent people who had dragged themselves to this point out of simple goodness.
They had fought their way here driven solely by the conviction to save the world, their families, and their friends. Though pushed to their absolute limits, which kept them from being perfect “heroes,” it was precisely because of their humanity that they still possessed the reason to distinguish right from wrong.
“It makes no sense. The fault was ours from the very beginning. The beasts learning to speak the human tongue was born of human greed in the past… and nothing has changed.”
“What did we even come here for? Did we shed all this blood and endure these endless nightmares just to protect the vile people who pushed us into this slaughterhouse? Why?”
“It’s horrific. Truly horrific. I don’t think I can fight anymore. If this world and its creatures can only survive by repeating such filthy sins, then it’s better off collapsing entirely!”
Yet, others grit their teeth.
“Are you out of your minds? Look at what we had to endure to get here. What does it matter what sins our ancestors committed to bring us to this point?”
“Have you forgotten our duty? We suffered through hell to make this world even a slightly better place! It may be true that humans of the past sinned, but why do you turn a blind eye to the far greater sins the fallen Saint is committing right now?!”
“Even if we must repeat sins to survive, only a select few need to bear that guilt! It’s enough if the perpetrators and we are the ones to shoulder it. It is not right for innocent people to be slaughtered!”
The debate raged on, but in the end, they reached a single conclusion.
“……”
“…We seal the Evil God first. Everything else comes after.”
They had to stop the immediate catastrophe.
“We all came here because we had something to protect. Our families, our friends, our lovers. Even if we’ve learned a filthy, despicable truth, the reason we stand here… is ultimately for our own sakes.”
Thus, the heroes finally succeeded in sealing the Evil God. And yet…
“…Something is wrong.”
“The beasts’ curse isn’t lifting.”
“The epidemic is still spreading…!”
Someone screamed.
“Of course it isn’t! This entire catastrophe was started by humans in the first place!”
The root cause lay in the primordial essence that constituted this world. The second was humanity’s reckless decision to burn the Saint who had been holding that terrible essence at bay. And the final cause was the ignorance of humans who, unable to distinguish the origin from the symptoms, pinned all the blame on the “Evil God.”
“But—but still! Even if turning the Saint into a fallen divinity was our sin, the Evil God Arjio still unleashed countless plagues! He incited the beasts and orchestrated massacres! None of us can deny that!”
“That doesn’t mean a damn thing! Open your eyes and look at the records in the ruins! Arjio was merely a byproduct of the process, not the root cause! Sealing him was never going to undo the disasters humanity had already set in motion!”
“Then why did we have to die, bleed, and suffer like this?!”
Their grief-stricken wails slowly curdled into rage.
Though they had successfully sealed Arjio—the Evil God of Pain and Wrath—infighting now broke out among the heroes standing before the Grave of the Evil God, where everything was supposed to have ended.
It was a tragedy more horrific than any other.
“……”
“……”
Yet, the fact remained that they had sealed the Evil God.
“…Let’s return to the village.”
“We must report to the royal court.”
“At least the Evil God is sealed. The massacres he caused will stop.”
“We accomplished that much, at least.”
Though countless disasters remained unresolved and a mountain of daunting tasks lay ahead, they had still sealed the murderous Arjio. That alone should have made the world a slightly better place.
But reality defied their expectations once more.
“Arjio has appeared in Zibia Village!”
“What are you talking about? We sealed the Evil God with our own hands…!”
“A horrific massacre has taken place!”
“That’s impossible…!”
The truth behind the massacres was simple.
“……”
“We have to go right now! The seal might have been broken!”
“I am the mage who cast the seal.”
“But…!”
“If it had been broken, I would have known instantly.”
The countless massacres and wars they had attributed to Arjio were, in fact, the handiwork of humans—using the cruel Evil God as a convenient scapegoat to unleash their own wrath and greed. While perhaps not all of them, a vast majority of those conflicts had been entirely man-made.
“It’s all meaningless now.”
The heroes were hollowed out by despair.
“If I had known it would end like this, I never would have sealed him. I wouldn’t have endured all that sacrifice and torment just to lock away an Evil God. I would have rather let him burn this entire world to ashes…”
“…Don’t say that. Even if many atrocities were committed using Arjio as an excuse, he still personally destroyed countless villages. We prevented an even greater catastrophe.”
“…I don’t know anymore.”
Furthermore, the public’s fury over the ongoing disasters quickly turned against the heroes.
“You said you sealed the Evil God!”
“They must have lied! They were probably tricked by the Evil God!”
“Or maybe they became his lackeys! Shameless bastards…!”
“We should burn them all at the stake!”
Fear, too, was weaponized against them.
“Everything is ruined. Those monsters are going to come kill us next.”
“I knew they were suspicious from the start. Look at them! How could those powers possibly belong to a human?”
“They’re monsters, plain and simple! We have to kill them before they bring ruin upon us!”
Some heroes tried to resist, but they were eventually killed. No matter how powerful they were, they were ultimately just ordinary humans. Shattered by the betrayal of the very people they had fought to protect, they collapsed.
An even greater number of heroes chose to flee. They hid, pretending they had never been “heroes,” constantly on the run, drifting from one place to another.
“……”
Yet, every single one of them was eventually caught.
“…Ha…”
Except for one man.
He had managed to survive by hiding inside the Grave of the Evil God. However, because he had been a fairly famous “hero,” the man was eventually discovered. Suspecting he was a minion of the Evil God, the people formed a subjugation force and marched upon the tomb.
“I knew you were here, you wicked cultist of the Evil God…!”
“Kill him! He’ll only breed more evil! Kill him!”
“He’s a subversive element spreading lies!”
That should have been the man’s final chance to die, but fate had other plans.
“Actually, this is the perfect location.”
“Chief Elder…! Are you going to let this man live?”
“He has his uses. Bring all the other ‘materials’ we captured earlier.”
“Could it be…”
“We shall write a new history here.”
The “materials,” including the man, were destined to become the pillars of a “new world.”
“With these monstrous specimens, stealing a god’s authority is well within our reach…”
Thus, the man was sealed inside a coffin sculpted in the likeness of the Goddess. He was likely not the only one to suffer this fate, but pinned by tentacles and blades that tore through his veins and sliced his flesh, he lost all capacity for rational thought.
“Aaaaargh…! Aaagh!! Aaaaaaaargh!!!”
“You still have the strength to scream, I see. Excellent. We might actually succeed this time.”
“Craaaaaaaack…!”
“Seal him tight. Ensure he can never break free, even after an eternity has passed.”
“Please… please, stop…!”
“We… shall slay a god today. And then, we will build a new paradise.”
“Guh…! Uuuurgh…”
As his mind grew hazy with agony and hatred, the man thought:
In the end, everything will fail.
It was a world rotten from beginning to end, populated by creatures just as twisted. Whatever they planned to achieve by exploiting the “materials”—the “heroes” like himself—they would never succeed.
Darkness fell.
Time passed.
And passed again.
“…Ugh…”
…Why couldn’t he die?
Trapped within the crown of thorns, the man wept tears of blood.
*
In the end, he summoned the Evil God.