Chapter 400: Alexander (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 400: Alexander (5)
Alexander's past life.
Back when he lived as Kim Pan-seok, his greatest pleasure had been grabbing a drink at the local tavern after a hard day's work.
"Did that really happen?"
"Bwahaha! I knew it!"
The tavern was bustling with life.
Everyone there was in a similar position to Kim Pan-seok. They were commoners who couldn't even dream of stepping foot inside a high-class courtesan house like the Cheonghwa Pavilion. Gathering in small groups, they chatted endlessly, finding amusement in the simplest of things. Kim Pan-seok was no different. As he traded lighthearted jokes, his sun-tanned face flush with warmth, the words of the local storyteller caught his attention.
"Have you fellas ever heard of Void Treading?"
"...Void Treading?"
"Yes, indeed! The martial artists of Murim can actually step on empty air and soar into the sky. It's a magnificent sight. Why, didn't old lady Choi from the next village witness a Murim warrior flying through the air just the other day? She was so terrified, thinking the Grim Reaper had come for her, that she nearly died of shock!"
"Aw, come on. That's a lie."
"A lie?! How dare you!"
That day was no exception.
The patrons bickered back and forth.
Watching the crowd call it nonsense while the storyteller argued back with a flushed face, Kim Pan-seok sat in the corner and smiled silently. There were countless far-fetched stories about Murim. Tales of a single person slaughtering thousands of warriors, lighting fires with their bare hands, or slicing a mountain in half with a single sword stroke. These legends—feats that made one doubt if these martial artists were even human—aroused both skepticism and deep fascination.
Just what kind of world is Murim? How can they do such incredible things?
To the Kim Pan-seok of that time, Murim had unconsciously become an object of profound yearning.
Whenever stories about Murim came up, he would stop whatever he was doing to listen. If he ever met even a third-rate martial artist claiming to be a warrior of Murim, he cast aside all doubt. He treated them with the utmost devotion, acting as if he would offer up his very soul. Just to hear a little more of their tales, he would be the first to grab a bottle and fill their cup.
As time passed, his knowledge of Murim grew.
They were real people, and though he didn't know how they acquired their martial arts, they were undoubtedly beings who had transcended human limits.
Murim warriors.
They were his idols.
Kim Pan-seok looked up to them like stars in the night sky, and whenever he fell into a deep sleep, he dreamed of becoming a peerless warrior and ruling the world.
Then, one day, his village was thrown into an uproar.
It was a turbulent era, rife with rumors that the Heavenly Demon Cult, the supreme masters of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, had waged an all-out war. On that fateful day, the warriors of the Demonic Cult descended from the mountains and cleared the roads. No one knew what was happening. As Kim Pan-seok hovered around with the rest of the villagers to assess the situation, he heard shocking news from the storyteller.
"I told you before, didn't I? The one currently leading the Heavenly Demon Cult was born with the greatest talent in history. He has finally conquered Murim! He brought the Righteous Faction Murim, the Evil Faction Murim, and the Outer Murim to their knees, creating a world solely for the Heavenly Demon Cult!"
Conquest of Murim.
It was a staggering concept.
Before he could even fully process the reality of those words, a grand procession appeared amidst the wild, deafening cheers of the crowd.
Ah.
At that moment, he knew instinctively.
The figure at the very front, accepting the masses' cheers as if it were his natural due, was the Heavenly Demon—the very being the storyteller had praised so passionately. The master of the Heavenly Demon Cult. It was an overwhelming, transcendent moment just to lay eyes on him. His heart pounded furiously. Like everyone else, Kim Pan-seok bowed his head and shouted at the top of his lungs, screaming until his throat felt ready to burst.
"Advent of the Heavenly Demon, Submission of Ten Thousand Demons!"
"Advent of the Heavenly Demon, Submission of Ten Thousand Demons!"
They praised the Heavenly Demon.
They welcomed his triumphant return.
As the procession passed right in front of him, Kim Pan-seok summoned every ounce of his courage to look up at the Heavenly Demon's face.
In that instant, a violent shiver ran down his spine.
The Heavenly Demon, whom he had only ever pictured in his imagination, exuded an intense, suffocating aura that far surpassed any fantasy.
Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk.
The Absolute of the Demonic Cult.
Kim Pan-seok knew, with absolute certainty, that he would never forget that face looking down upon the world for the rest of his life.
* * *
His heart pounded.
His breath grew shallow.
The moment Alexander confirmed the name of Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk, his mind spun so violently that he forgot his current reality.
To think Roman Dmitry was Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk.
He was utterly astounded.
Just moments ago, while facing Roman Dmitry's overwhelming martial prowess, Alexander had thought of various legendary figures from the Heavenly Demon Cult.
I heard that the Heavenly Demon Cult had the Four Heavenly Kings who followed Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk. Could he be the reincarnation of the Mad Demon, who stood alone against the Righteous Faction Murim without retreating a single step? Or the reincarnation of the Blood Demon, known to have slaughtered the most Murim warriors? If not them, could he be the reincarnation of the Sword Demon, who wielded the greatest swordsmanship second only to Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk himself?
The Four Heavenly Kings.
They were the figures the storyteller had spoken of, spitting with excitement as he recounted their tales. Alexander didn't know the world of Murim intimately, but because he had lived under the absolute rule of the Heavenly Demon Cult, he at least knew their names.
However, there was one person he could never have imagined Roman Dmitry to be: the Heavenly Demon himself.
To Alexander—no, to Kim Pan-seok—the existence of Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk was no different from a god.
The storyteller had told me. He said Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk was a man beyond common sense. He achieved the conquest of Murim—a feat that even the past Heavenly Demons had repeatedly failed to accomplish—through sheer, overwhelming power. I lived in the world he ruled. And back then, during those peaceful days, I was truly proud to be one of Baek Joong-hyuk's subjects.
It was shocking.
Baek Joong-hyuk.
He was a perfect leader.
Even if he didn't have a benevolent image, he granted the common people a decent, human life built upon his absolute power and clear, unyielding laws. Perhaps that was why, whenever people gathered, they all praised Baek Joong-hyuk. Alexander had been the same, raising his glass and drunkenly declaring that they were able to live well thanks to him.
Therefore, he could never have dared to anticipate this.
For someone like him to raise a sword against Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk was a sacred boundary, a sin forbidden even in his wildest imagination.
Ah.
The strength drained from his body.
He couldn't accept reality.
Reflecting on the situation, there were parts that simply made no sense. He and Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk had been contemporaries in their past lives, but the current Roman Dmitry and himself could not be considered contemporaries. Alexander had transcended the human lifespan and lived for eons. If one compared the years they had actually lived, there was a massive gap in time—enough for the world to have changed countless times over.
Just how did this happen?
In a situation where not a single thing was easy to accept, the only absolute certainty was his defeat.
And...
...Was this the natural outcome?
If it was Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk...
If it was the man who had conquered Murim...
Alexander, who had been vehemently denying reality until just a moment ago, felt he could finally accept this shocking defeat.
* * *
While Alexander was lost in shock, Roman Dmitry read his opponent's memories.
Plunging into the abyss of his mind, he reviewed useful information in reverse chronological order, sifting from the most recent events back into the distant past.
At one point, the memories stopped.
Seen from Alexander's perspective, his head was bowed low as an overwhelming presence pressed down from above.
"O Demon King. The chaos caused by Roman Dmitry grows worse by the day. The girl of the Luna Kingdom is also doing everything she can to seal the Dimensional Gate. Please give me your command. What would you have me do next?"
The King of the Demon Realm.
It was a colossal, suffocating presence.
Alexander's consciousness had reached the Demon Realm, and without even daring to look up at the Demon King, he waited for his orders.
From above, a raspy, abyssal voice echoed.
"What I desire is the assimilation of the Earthly World and the Demon Realm. For the beings of the Demon Realm to fully establish themselves in the Earthly World, the dimensional wall must be torn down. Alexander, my servant. Though the Dimensional Rift began because of you, this alone is not enough. Commit slaughter. Plunge the world into chaos with death and blood. The more the mortals cry out in agony, the more the dimension will gradually lose its strength."
"I obey your command."
In this world, the people did not know the truth.
They did not know who truly stood behind Kronos, nor did they know Alexander's true purpose in trying to conquer the continent.
The Demon Realm.
He intended to welcome that world.
By completely dyeing the world in darkness, Alexander would live eternally, enjoying absolute, unchecked power in a world ruled by the Demon King. That was his pact with the Demon King. Back when he first lived as Emperor Alexander, the devil's whispers in his ears had promised a brilliant, everlasting future in the distant days to come.
For that reason, the Kronos Empire had waged war.
With the truth of the Valhalla Empire being revealed, they had been forced to move up the timing of the war earlier than planned.
Bzzzzzt.
The scene shifted.
The memories were not perfect.
They appeared in fractured fragments, showing the long life Alexander had lived as Roman sank deeper into his past.
Alexander. He possessed the power to conquer the continent long ago. But what he desired was not a simple continental conquest; it was the assimilation of the Demon Realm and the Earthly World. That was why he had no choice but to bide his time until the power of the dimension weakened sufficiently. The moment the boundary between the Demon Realm and the Earthly World collapsed, there would be no place left for humans who did not submit to the Demon King.
The truth.
He had finally confirmed Alexander's objective.
He was a truly pathetic human being.
The moment he hit his limits as a mortal, Alexander had eagerly grasped the hand extended by the Demon King just to satisfy his own intense desires.
Even though he was revered as the founder of Aura, and even though he was the supreme Emperor of the Empire, he was not satisfied with his life.
According to the Mother Elf, the Dimensional Rift had originated from Alexander in the first place. The rift had begun when he crossed the dimensional boundary to occupy a new body. Rather than wanting 'Alexander himself,' the Demon King likely just needed a convenient tool to cause that rift. Roman Dmitry could see it clearly. The relationship between the Demon King and Alexander was parasitic, but Alexander had been entirely blinded by the promise of eternal life.
The memories continued.
Before long...
Bzzzzzt.
He recalled his past life.
It was the scene of Kim Pan-seok climbing a mountain and being swept away by dimensional travel.
However, it was an incredibly familiar sight.
* * *
That place.
It was familiar.
In his past life, Baek Joong-hyuk had often sought out new, secluded locations for training. On that particular day, he had settled on a mountain peak to reflect on his martial arts. It had started as a light meditation. But while organizing his recent realizations, enlightenment rushed in like a bursting dam, and Baek Joong-hyuk suddenly advanced to a new realm.
The Realm of Heaven.
He had assimilated with nature itself.
To fully accept the boundless energy of nature, he had engaged in a life-or-death struggle with himself for days and nights, enduring unimaginable pain.
He couldn't keep his senses straight.
He crossed the threshold of death several times over.
It was a realm that none of the past Heavenly Demons had ever approached. Since no one could guide him, Baek Joong-hyuk had to forge his own path. He didn't know how much time had passed. While he was enduring the unfamiliar, bone-crushing pain, Baek Joong-hyuk felt a human approaching the place where he was training.
It was an ordinary person.
There was no trace of martial arts on him, and based on his pace, it would take about three or four hours for him to reach this spot.
He ignored him.
Whoever he was, it didn't matter.
Baek Joong-hyuk focused entirely on himself, falling into a State of Selflessness and fully accepting the power of nature. The transformation began. His physical body was brutally reconstructed. Shedding Bones and Rebirth repeated continuously, and when he felt an intense, transcendent energy pierce through his mind, he became absolutely certain that he had entered a new realm.
It was then.
Whoosh!
Rumble, rumble!
The world shook violently.
A dimensional rift tore open from the massive wave of power, and the ordinary person caught in his senses was instantly swept away by that overwhelming force.
Only then did he realize.
Alexander was a being born because of me.
When he had stepped into the divine realm, the mortal swept up in the backlash of his power had crossed the dimensional boundary, eventually obtaining the name Alexander in a new world.
* * *
Slide.
He pulled his hand away.
Alexander.
He looked down at the defeated Emperor.
It was a complicated relationship.
At the time, Baek Joong-hyuk had thought an innocent human had died because of his breakthrough. After finding out the man's identity, he had provided more than enough compensation to his surviving relatives. Even if it was unintentional, an innocent person had suffered, so Baek Joong-hyuk could not simply let the matter slide.
But he hadn't died; he had become Alexander.
The dimensional boundary transcended time. While Baek Joong-hyuk lived out his life as the Heavenly Demon, Alexander had built an entirely new world of his own.
Is this also the Heavenly Mandate?
Nothing happened without a reason.
Alexander's very existence in this world had originated from him. Furthermore, the life he had lived as Roman Dmitry shared many similarities, to the point of feeling deeply familiar, and Roman Dmitry's body was in a form perfectly suited for rapid martial growth. With all the conditions met, destiny had naturally engineered a situation where he stood directly in the way of Alexander's grand plans.
This was clearly by design.
His transmigration into Roman Dmitry's body could not be considered a mere coincidence from the very beginning.
Shhh.
The suppression was lifted.
Alexander's body faltered, slumping forward.
As the fallen Emperor struggled to open his eyes and look up, Roman Dmitry gazed down at him. His eyes were perfectly calm as he spoke a single truth.
"So you were my subject."
At those words, Alexander's eyes shook violently.