A Meeting of Four
My vision abruptly flooded with black, and my consciousness plunged straight down.
But this wasn't collapsing or fainting.
I could stake my pride on that — I'd been losing consciousness often enough lately to know the difference.
If I had to put it into words, it was more like—
'Like my body stayed put while only my mind got relocated somewhere else.'
It was a strange way to describe it, but nothing else came close.
Welcome, Lee Tae-hyun.
A glowing message printed itself out of the darkness.
“Wisdom?”
Yes! That's me!
Eternal Maintenance System of the Hall, Wisdom.
So it was Wisdom who had brought me here.
Being suddenly teleported to some incomprehensible place was reason enough to be on guard — and yet, I couldn't sense even a single drop of hostility from Wisdom.
'...Then again, talking about hostility from a system is pretty funny in itself.'
Wisdom was far too emotional to be dismissed as a mere system or artificial intelligence.
It was as if it were the genuine soul of a living being.
Well, if someone insisted even that was just learned behavior, I wouldn't have a comeback.
“Where is this?”
Wisdom answered my question instantly.
This is the inside of you, Tae-hyun!
“My inside?”
To be precise, you could call it the middle ground where body, mind, and soul meet.
Even with the explanation, I had no idea what it was talking about.
At the very least, I could tell this wasn't a particularly dangerous place.
“So why did you suddenly bring me here?”
Why, to have you succeed the Pinnacle of Magic, of course, Tae-hyun!
(˃◡˂)
The Pinnacle of Magic.
The thing I'd assumed was Magic Crafting all this time.
Tae-hyun, do you know what the Pinnacle of Magic truly is?
I thought for a moment, then shook my head.
So Wisdom continued its explanation, calm and matter-of-fact.
The Pinnacle of Magic.
It is the creation of this dimension's sages — a craft honed through lifetimes of research.
The very end of magitech engineering, just as the name implies.
The crowning achievement of the sages' art. Their legacy.
“Okay, but what exactly is it?”
What the sages defined as the Pinnacle of Magic is: a being that is immortal, eternally, and grows of its own accord.
A mind possessing storage vaster than anything else in existence, one that endures across aeons and ultimately transcends its own creators.
In other words — an Artificial Soul.
“An Artificial Soul...!”
The sages of this dimension had actually reached the point of creating souls?
But the sages knew something.
A soul that remains in one place will, in the end, stop growing.
So they gave that soul a new purpose.
“...Don't tell me.”
Yes, exactly.
The eternal maintenance of the Hall. And, the proxy of the trials.
They made it seek out on its own the worthy one who would one day grasp the arrangements they had left behind!
The Pinnacle of Magic, forged by the sages.
That was—
'It was you, Wisdom.'
It was Wisdom.
The ones who'd entered before my regression had apparently only cleared the trials without meeting the conditions for succession.
That much was clear from the fact that I'd never once heard of Wisdom's existence.
Allow me to introduce myself once more.
I am the legacy of the sages. The Pinnacle of Magic.
An Artificial Soul system carrying on the will of magic itself.
I am Wisdom!
(๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)
So that was why it didn't feel like a system.
Because this thing was practically an individual with a soul of its own.
'To create something like this.'
Even thinking about it again, the sheer technological prowess left me stunned.
“Then why did a dimension with this kind of technology fall?”
...I'm sorry. All records concerning the fall were erased.
Whatever had destroyed them, it couldn't have been an ordinary cause.
The only thing I could guess was that it had something to do with the Monarchs' invasion.
'For growing their power and influence, nothing would have tempted them more than this magitech.'
If anything, I should count myself lucky that Wisdom at least hadn't been looted.
God only knew what kind of catastrophe would follow if a super-advanced technology like an Artificial Soul fell into their hands.
By the criteria left behind by the sages and myself, you are more than qualified to succeed me, Tae-hyun.
In fact, I was about to begin the succession procedure right away, but...
Wisdom's voice trailed off.
“Is there a problem?”
O-one of them objected... very strenuously...
“One of them?”
Who on earth could be objecting?
Was this even the kind of matter that could be voted on in the first place?
'The Artificial Soul, Wisdom.'
I had no idea what kind of help it would be.
But by succeeding it myself, I'd at least kept it out of the other Monarchs' hands — that alone was more than worth it.
“Who exactly are we talking about?”
Th-them!
Two auras bloomed out of the darkness like colliding storms.
One resembled the fires of hell; the other carried a deep, heavy darkness within it.
Soon the auras took on shape, and two figures revealed themselves.
“...You!”
One of them, shockingly, looked familiar.
Jet-black swept-back hair and a monocle.
A man impeccably dressed in a suit.
“Dantalion?!”
“To think we'd meet like this.”
The Hellish Grand Duke who had passed his power to me and vanished was standing right there.
“What the hell?! Weren't you supposed to be gone?”
“Compose yourself. It's undignified.”
“No.”
How was I supposed to compose myself?
When a man I'd thought was dead was alive and well inside my own soul.
“First things first — I am not Dantalion.”
“Then what are you?”
“I am Demon Spear Dantalion.”
“...So there's a difference?”
Dantalion furrowed his brow slightly and began to explain.
To summarize: the Dantalion standing before me was not the Dantalion I'd seen in the world within the fragments.
That one had truly passed all his power to me and ceased to exist.
The thing in front of me now was the embodiment of the power and rank that Dantalion had granted me.
It wore his appearance, apparently, because his image had been imprinted so strongly on my mind.
“So you hold Dantalion's power and rank, but you aren't Dantalion himself...”
“There's no need to overcomplicate it. What you and I must do hasn't changed one bit.”
And just like that, the relationship between us was more or less settled.
Which meant the one blocking Wisdom's move-in wasn't Dantalion's side.
Then that left—
“You're the one interfering, then.”
“Correct!”
Flames roared to life, scattering scarlet locks of long hair.
She stood about my height, her blazing eyes as if they held Karma Flame itself.
Despite her coarse manner of speech, she had delicately beautiful features.
“...But who are you, exactly?”
Unfortunately, I'd never once crossed paths with this lady.
“WHAT?!!!!”
The moment she flared up, fire spat in every direction.
Even though this space had no physical substance, my whole body felt like it was burning.
“You dare claim you don't know Bonjwa?!”
“No, seriously, what am I supposed to do if I genuinely don't?”
“Ghk!”
Her eyes welled up as if she were genuinely wounded.
“E-even if I do this, you still don't know!”
She pressed her palms together and summoned flame.
Four spears of fire formed in its wake.
Could that be—
“Flame Soul Javelin?”
“Hah! So you do know it~.”
The instant those words left my mouth, she beamed.
Her mood swings were starting to unsettle me.
'Hold on. If that's the case, then...'
Several pieces of information snapped together in my head.
Could this woman be—
“Flame Soul?”
“Mm-hm! That is but one of Bonjwa's many names!”
Flame Soul crossed her arms and snorted.
Everything about her image screamed gruff old warrior.
“In any case! Bonjwa adamantly, absolutely opposes letting that little brat in here!”
()
Flame Soul turned her head away, declaring her opposition for all to see.
“Besides, Bonjwa never wanted that musty old codger here in the first place!”
She jabbed a finger at Dantalion.
Come to think of it, when I'd received Dantalion's power, messages like these had popped up.
'Flame Soul' is displaying displeasure!
'Flame Soul' grumbles and makes room for the new power.
So that hadn't been mere skill resistance — she'd genuinely just hated it?
“Why do you hate it?”
“This space belongs to you and Bonjwa alone!”
Flame Soul bellowed.
“Where in this world is there anyone who delights in having their personal domain encroached upon, I ask you!”
“How is this your space?”
This is my body.
“Ugh...! W-well, I was here first... so it's mine!”
“That's complete nonsense—”
“AAAAAH! Bonjwa doesn't care! No more room! Ptooey, ptooey!”
Flame Soul flopped down onto the floor and started throwing a full-blown tantrum.
For all her rough, ferocious appearance, her behavior was no different from a spoiled child's.
I clutched my head.
'So this was the kind of thing happening inside me all along.'
Flame Soul.
Looking back, it had always been a rather anomalous power.
Its growth-type nature, the way it devoured the Karma Flame in the Trait Training Ground.
I'd suspected it was no ordinary skill, but—
'I never imagined it was on this level.'
Flame Soul was writhing on the ground like she was having a convulsion.
Part of me wanted to slowly unravel what she actually was, but—
:(˘•̥•̥˘ ):
Wisdom was trembling behind me, so I'd better wrap this up fast.
“Whew. Fine, then. Let's set a condition.”
“A condition?”
“Stop blocking Wisdom from moving in, and I'll grant you one thing you want.”
“R-really?!”
Flame Soul's face lit up and she sprang to her feet in one bound.
“Yes.”
“Anything at all?!”
“As long as it's not something too shameless.”
“Then... very well! Bonjwa shall graciously extend her generosity.”
And so, on the condition that I grant Flame Soul one favor, I got her approval for Wisdom's succession.
It was absurd that I needed permission for anything involving my own body — but still.
'Flame Soul' cheerfully vacates her seat.
'Demon Spear Dantalion' coolly steps aside.
A prickling sensation began to swirl through my skull.
“Honestly, the man has a real talent for scaring people half to death.”
Ji Yeon-ha muttered as she watched Lee Tae-hyun, sprawled across her lap, breathing slow and quiet.
When he'd suddenly keeled over, she'd assumed he was messing with her again.
But when time kept passing and he still hadn't stirred, she'd genuinely started to wonder if something had gone terribly wrong.
“Still, he is human after all. I mean, he wore himself clean out and dropped.”
“Human... huh?”
Technically he'd gone into his inner space, but neither of the two mages had any way of knowing that.
Since things had turned out this way, they decided to rest a while until Tae-hyun woke up.
“So? How was it?”
“Hm?”
“The Tuner class. I'm dying to know what kind of problems they gave you in there.”
The two of them talked about this gate — about Ah Seo-ah's class, the Tuner, in particular.
“Well, you see...”
Ah Seo-ah launched into the story without holding anything back.
From how she'd tried to run away when she couldn't solve the problems inside, all the way to how Tae-hyun's words had sent her back to stand before the scales one last time.
When she finished, Ji Yeon-ha smiled softly.
“Fufu. Love him or hate him, he really does treasure his guild members, doesn't he?”
“......”
Ah Seo-ah silently hid her face behind her hat.
Because she herself had no idea what expression she was making right now.
“So what happened with the final problem, then?”
As far as she remembered, Seo-ah had solved something at the end and received a buff.
From everything she'd heard so far, the Hall's problems should have been far beyond Seo-ah's current level.
“Oh, that? Here's what happened.”
Ah Seo-ah explained what had occurred at the final problem.
Right down to the existence of that skill she'd obtained by unraveling the magic formula.
“...An S-rank skill?! Seriously?”
“I'm not entirely sure myself. But...”
Ah Seo-ah hugged her knees and gazed at the sleeping Tae-hyun's face.
“If it's the Guild Master... I feel like he'd know something about it.”
A soft, easy smile slipped out of her.
Somehow, just being beside him made her feel reassured.
Ji Yeon-ha, on the other hand, rolled her eyes with evident interest.
'This child is no ordinary talent.'
The way she'd solved the final problem in particular had been positively brilliant.
And if she'd truly wrung an off-registry S-rank magic out of it as well—
“Hey. Seo-ah.”
At the sound of her given name, Ah Seo-ah's back snapped ramrod straight.
“Yes, ma'am!”
“How would you feel...”
Ji Yeon-ha's lips curled into a crescent moon.
“about being interested in the Tower Master's seat?”